By Crescon
I've just moved to a new house and there is a cherry tree in the garden. How can I find out if the cherries are edible? Some people have suggested it might be a morello. We moved here in April and the blossom was white. The fruit doesn't smell sweet. Cherries are in clusters - some bright red. The dogs ate a few and came to no harm!
- 13 Jul, 2013
Answers
You won't be poisoned by tasting some. If they're about 1cm across, and yellow/red, they will be ok to eat, but may be a bit sharp. Dark red, and they're probably eaters, but, beware, Morello cherries are dark and they are not too good raw (that's an understatement!), needing a lot of sweetening. If they're edible, try them in a pie, and win one over on the blackbirds.
13 Jul, 2013
Size as well my P. avium and P.padus are big trees wheras Stella for example is about like P. kanzan the ornamental double pink blossom tree
13 Jul, 2013
I would think it impossible to eat enough bird cherries to come to any harm. I once bit into one and spat it out immediately, Ugh!
13 Jul, 2013
As far as I know, non of the cherry (prunus) species are poisonous. However, many of them, especially the fruit of ornamental type, don't make good eating
Be careful though, because the name cherry covers a number of species, being a particular subfamily of the prunus, i.e. winter cherry, aka Christmas Cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum) which is poisonous.
If like you you said, it's a tree, then this will rule out the poisonous types and I'm sure that it will be edible.
13 Jul, 2013
Taste one and if it tastes of cherries you're in! If it tastes horrible spit it out and no harm done. Morellos are naturally less sweet but not horrible, and do well in a north facing situation.
14 Jul, 2013
Previous question
« Many thanks Andy jeavon - thought as much but its nice to know I'm not an idiot!
Ifyou saw the blossom, then its easier to tell - the blossom on bird cherry (not poisonous, but unpleasant to eat Prunus padus) looks like little candles all over the tree, the blossom stands upright. With most other cherries, the blossom doesn't do that.
13 Jul, 2013