The Wild Cherry - Prunus avium

 Is a species of cherry, native to Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, and east to southern Sweden, Poland, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and northern Iran, with a small disjunct population in the western Himalaya.It is a deciduous tree growing to 15-32 m tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m diameter. Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.  In autumn, the leaves turn orange, pink or red before falling. The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the new leaves, borne in corymbs of two to six together, each flower pendent on a 2-5 cm peduncle, 2.5-3.5 cm diameter, with five pure white petals, yellowish stamens, and a superior ovary; they are hermaphroditic, and pollinated by bees. The fruit is a drupe 1-2 cm in diameter (larger in some cultivated selections), bright red to dark purple when mature in mid summer, edible, variably sweet to somewhat astringent and bitter to eat fresh; it contains a single hard-shelled stone 8-12 mm long, 7-10 mm wide and 6-8 mm thick, grooved along the flattest edge;

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