Looks like a cherry but it isn't. Help

[TarHeelBrit]

Can anyone help me identify this tree in my garden? In the spring it has flowers and leaves just like a cherry and throughout the summer that's what I thought it was.

The tree is about 14-16ft with a spread of around 10-12ft.



99% of the leaves have already fallen but here a few that haven't




The fruits hang pendulous just like a cherry. Thousands of them.



Cross section of a fruit. The recent heavy rain has caused a lot of the fruit to swell and burst it's skin. Each fruit has several small apple like pips in it. The flesh is mushy and very tart.



Any thought as to what it is?

Well so much for fresh cherries from the tree. Looks like a trip to Tesco.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Wild Cherry, (Prunus Avium) ?

 

[TarHeelBrit]

I thought about that one but all my research shows Prunus Avium has normal sized pits.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Can you post a pic of the bark?

 

[crosslandkelly]

Barbados Cherry ( Malpighia glabra ) ?

 

[Robson Valley]

I doubt cherry. All Prunus sp. are stone fruits with a single seed in the middle.
The fruit anatomy means something else but what, I don't know. Very strange.

Of course, there's every possibility that the tree is XYZ "cherry" as the common name for the over all growth habit.

 

[TarHeelBrit]

Well that's what I always though that the Prunus sp had a single stone. This one has me confused. From the growth habit, the spring blossoms, leaves and now the fruit I was convinced it was a Prunus. Thanks for your help I'm going to keep researching this one as no wannabe cherry will beat me.

 

[British Red]

The only thing I can think of is some bizarre crab apple? Looks like a cherry and cherry leaf to me thoough

 

[Goatboy]

I'm sure I've seen it in a horticultural ornamental tree catalogue. Was years back, think it was from China or Japan.
Could be wrong and it's some weird hybrid but might be worth having a look around there. (Or pop a question up on the Gardeners Question Time website.)

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[pysen78]

Looks like Malus to me. Probably Sargent's apple (sometimes Sargent crabapple). Lots of varieties, so difficult to tell exactly. I don't quite recognise the serarrations on the leaves, and it's usually not that tall (around 2m) But close enough to investigate furhter, I think. Search for "Malus" and "sargentii".

 

[Robson Valley]

OK, possibly Malus sp. Cut very carefully on the "equator" of a few fruits. Malus sp. all look the same in cross section.
But that anatomy extends to other trees and shrubs, it all depends on which part(s) of the flower contribute to the fleshy part of the fruit.
Are these fruits in clusters with one of them noticably larger than the others in the cluster?

Idea: can you ask the Royal Horticultural Society? Send them leaves, twigs and fruits?

 

[birchwood]

You could try asking Brogdale Farm. The home of the national fruit collection. Based near Faversham, Kent.

 

[TarHeelBrit]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll try to snap a photo of the bark today although it's a really crappy day wet and windy i.e. the perfect day for a bimble in the woods (well for me at least)

 

[Robson Valley]

Crappy day? Rug up, pick a bucketful and make some serious jam. Wet snow here most of the day.
In the conifer forests, the wet snow drips like slush = need a serious hat! But there's no wind.
Cold, quiet. Haven't been out for so long (bad ankle sprain) I can't tell you if the bears have quit for the year.

The sled heads (local snowmobilers) said it was up to the headlights "up top" and approx 2/3 beer can per hour.
Multimillion dollar business here. With nitrous boost, best sled here on the dyno is 450HP.

 

[TarHeelBrit]

Yesterday was much to nice a day to waste taking photos, wet and windy. I asked my wife if she needed anything from the village shop she did and was surprised when I didn't grab the car keys. I told her it was too good a day to be inside the car...she thinks I'm mad.

Okay here's a few photo's of the truck best I could get.





As suggested (thanks for that) I cut a fruit round it's equator. I was hoping or expecting the 5 pointed star of seeds. What I got was a "capsule" of 4 tightly packed seeds which separated from the flesh I guess so it will pass through an animals or birds digestive system unharmed.

Sorry for the bad photo but I hope you can see what it is.

 

[Robson Valley]

Like most things, I'm old enough to admit that I do not have a clue.

 

[TarHeelBrit]

Like most things, I'm old enough to admit that I do not have a clue.

Me too, hey join the club we've got Tshirts.

 

[British Red]

That bark looks cherry like to me?

 

[Macaroon]

That bark looks cherry like to me?

And it does to me, quite unmistakeable I'd say.

 

[Robson Valley]

The taxonomy, the classification, of plants is based almost entirely on the structures in the flowers and the fruits.
Superficially, this thing looks cherry-like but the fruit anatomy is not cherry.

The rest of the "entirely" is a microscopic examination of the wood anatomy. Groups of species get confusing (red oak group, white oak group, pines, spruces and so on.)
Apple wood and cherry woods are quite distinctive.