Cherry tree in bloom.
Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry,[2] sweet cherry,[2] bird cherry,[2] or gean,[2] is a species of cherry native to Europe, western Turkey, northwestern Africa, and western Asia, from the British Isles[3] south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small disjunct population in the western Himalaya.[4][5] This species, in the rose family (Rosaceae), has a diploid set of sixteen chromosomes (2n = 16).[6] All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides. The early history of its classification is somewhat confused. In the first edition of Species Plantarum (1753), Linnaeus treated it as only a variety, Prunus cerasus var. avium, citing Gaspard Bauhin's Pinax theatri botanici (1596) as a synonym;[clarification needed] his description, Cerasus racemosa hortensis ("Cherry with racemes, of gardens")[clarification needed] shows it was described from a cultivated plant.[7] Linnaeus then changed from a variety to a species Prunus avium in the second edition of his Flora Suecica in 1755.[8] Sweet cherry was known historically as Gean or Mazzard (also 'massard'), until recently, both were largely obsolete names in modern English. The name "wild cherry" is also commonly applied to other species of Prunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American species Prunus serotina. Prunus avium means "bird cherry" in the Latin language.[5] In English "bird cherry" often refers to Prunus padus.[9] read more :
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Photo credit: © lugris / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: bloom, cherry, flower, flowering, flowers, garden, lugris2, springtime, tree
