The distinctive wild cherry is a fast growing deciduous native to Scotland, found in mixed and beech woodlands throughout the country. It’s also known as ‘gean’ and its botanical name is Prunus avium.

Facts and stats

• Uses: The wild cherry is often used as rootstock for more productive fruit bearing varieties. Its pinkish-brown wood is used to make fine furniture, musical instruments, veneers, smoking pipes and is prized for turned items such as bowls.
• Flowers: Its flowers can appear before the leaves and produce an almond-like scent.
• Fruit: Scented white flowers are followed by small green cherries, which turn red then purple when ripe. Birds quickly strip the fruit and spread the seeds by dropping or swallowing them.
• Bark: The wild cherry has smooth purplish-brown bark with metallic lustre and horizontal bands of lenticels.
• Height: Can grow up to 24 metres tall with spreading lower branches and the rest pointing up.
• Supporting insect species: 63
• Lifespan: 250 years
• Natural range: Europe, North Africa & West Asia