Identification: Plerry? Cherum?

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by wcutler, May 26, 2023.

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  1. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    There are four young fruit trees next to the sidewalk at a rental highrise building in my neighbourhood. The apple tree has at least three cultivars. Another tree has a label saying Puget Gold Apricot. So not your normal Vancouver street-side plantings. The tree pictured here has cherry bark and leaves with nectaries and sweet cherry leaf margins. But the fruits are not in an inflorescence. The fruit arrangement reminded me of Prunus salicina plums, so I looked up P. avium and P salicina hybrid, and I found this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum-cherry_hybrid, saying that plerry and cherum are hybrids of those two species. I was wondering if I had got this right, but the page says some of the hybrids look more like cherries, some more like plums, so I think I've got the right idea here, and there are more than one cultivar name in the running. Presumably where Wikipedia says plerry (more like a plum) or cherum (more like a cherry)", they're referring to the fruit, not the appearance of the tree.

    Here is a page for a trademarked Sweet Treat Pluerry ™: Sweet Treat Pluerry ™ - One Green World.
    Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160259.jpg Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160313.jpg Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160326.jpg Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160540.jpg Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160545.jpg
    Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160450.jpg Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160717.jpg Plerry-or-cherum_1651Harwood_Cutler_20230525_160747.jpg
     
  2. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    As noted in Wendy's second Internet link, pluerry is a more common name for a plum/cherry hybrid, but the photos of the fruit look more like cherries than plums. So, I would guess that it is a cherum, which is a rather uncommon name for this hybrid (I couldn't find any nursery that sells them under that name). Actually, to me the fruit looks like an ordinary sweet cherry. It would be useful to look at the fruit later to see if it gets larger than a cherry.
     
  3. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    I wonder if cherums ripen at cherry time (July-ish) and plerries/pluerries ripen at plum time which a website I'm looking at says starts in the Okanagan in August. I've set a reminder to check them out at the beginning of July. I hope they're not all gone before I can get one to check out the pit. Hmm, I've set another reminder for two weeks before that. There is a lot of fruit, but it's a little tree right at the sidewalk, and this is a very densely populated neighbourhood.
     
  4. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    I knew I had another question - if it were a cherum, would the flowering be in inflorescences? That's not the case here.
    There are some fruits that have a more extended plum shape.
     
  5. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    The mystery is Prunus avium.
     
  6. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Everything about the tree until I got to the fruits looks like Prunus avium.
    What made me think it was different were the short length and thickness of the fruit stems, and what did not seem to be an inflorescence. I was thinking of Prunus avium pedicels looking longer and thinner, like what are shown in Joseph Lin's photo at https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc....nd-tree-mid-to-late-season.24339/#post-292102.
    i3884pedicels.jpg
    But I see in Posting 11 just before in that thread, the stems on P. 'Stella' look more like the ones here.
    20100412_UBCBG_Stella_Cutler_P1000491.jpg
    The look of the stems reminded me of the third photo in Joseph Lin's posting at https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/small-white-flowers-with-narrow-petal-stalk.61341/, which you said was a Japanese orchard plum.
    20100312_East62PE_White_Lin_8687.jpg
     
  7. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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