Species
+

Prunus avium (L.) L.

Bird Cherry, Cerasa, Cereijeira, Cerezal

Climate known 49 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean, is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to western Eurasia and naturalized elsewhere. It is an ancestor of P. cerasus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Prunus avium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Prunus

Prunus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs from the rose family (Rosaceae) that produce stone fruits, or drupes. As of March 2024, the genus has about 340 accepted species, including almonds, apricots, cherries, peaches, and plums. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the temperate regions of North America, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Eurasia and Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Prunus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
(L.) L.
Native to
Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland +34
Wild records
658 in range· 250 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
872mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 81 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 872 mm a year, wettest July at 81 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? iuliana L.; ? yuliana L.; Cerasus actiana Münchh.; Cerasus anglica Poit. & Turpin; Cerasus anglica var. praecox Poit. & Turpin and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (625 mm of 872 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 872 mm a year, wettest July at 81 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

872 mm a year at the habitat, 625 mm of it June to January. Wettest month July at 81 mm, driest April at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 677 mm to 1241 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -9.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -9.0 °C, the absolute minimum -18.1 °C, about 59 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.3 °C to 1.5 °C), warmest day 22.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 872 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 611 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost28.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–34RH 59–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 611 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 2–76 / 3–79 / 7–1113 / 11–1417 / 15–1920 / 18–2222 / 20–2522 / 20–2418 / 16–2014 / 12–159 / 6–105 / 3–7
Night °C0 / -4–20 / -4–12 / -1–35 / 2–59 / 7–1011 / 10–1314 / 13–1514 / 13–1511 / 9–128 / 6–94 / 1–51 / -3–2
Rain mm76 / 48–9260 / 41–7870 / 48–9349 / 44–8968 / 58–11974 / 61–11781 / 62–11877 / 61–11976 / 59–11280 / 62–11380 / 58–10481 / 58–107
DLI5 / 4–910 / 9–1517 / 16–2327 / 26–3033 / 32–3534 / 33–3733 / 32–3728 / 27–3219 / 18–2412 / 11–166 / 5–104 / 3–7
RH %68 / 63–6965 / 61–6663 / 59–6460 / 58–6159 / 58–6160 / 58–6260 / 57–6261 / 57–6263 / 60–6465 / 63–6667 / 65–6969 / 64–70

Each figure is the median across the 611 grid cells holding the 656 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 751:3721 (52.425, 6.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 611 distinct grid cells holding the 656 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 751:3721 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.50_6.250, lapse-corrected -3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 7 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Krym, Ukraine, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Turkey· introduced: Finland, Baleares, Sardegna, Sicilia, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Lebanon-Syria, Korea, East Himalaya, Pakistan, West Himalaya, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.545, 6.696 · in the densest population, 253 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 658 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 250 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 591 km away. 26 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 658 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prunus aviumPrunus aviumPrunus aviumPrunus aviumPrunus aviumPrunus aviumPrunus aviumPrunus avium

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Francesco Santoro, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Prunus avium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Development of microsatellite markers in peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] and their use in genetic diversity analysis in peach and sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.)
Elisabeth Dirlewanger, Pierre Cosson, Muriel Tavaud, María José Aranzana (2002) · Theoretical and Applied Genetics
Sugars, organic acids, phenolic composition and antioxidant activity of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.)
V. Usenik, Jerneja Fabčič, Franci Štampar (2007) · Food Chemistry
Chemical Constituents and Antioxidant Activity of Sweet Cherry at Different Ripening Stages
Marı́a Serrano, Fabián Guillén, Domingo Martínez‐Romero, S. Castillo (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Temperature-Related Development and Population Parameters for Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) on Cherry and Blueberry
Samantha Tochen, Daniel T. Dalton, Nik G. Wiman, Christopher A. Hamm (2014) · Environmental Entomology
Infestation of Wild and Ornamental Noncrop Fruits by Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
J. C. Lee, Amy J. Dreves, Adam Cave, S. Kawai (2015) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
The genome sequence of sweet cherry (Prunus avium) for use in genomics-assisted breeding
Kenta Shirasawa, Kanji Isuzugawa, Mitsunobu Ikenaga, Yutaro Saito (2017) · DNA Research
A new method of sap flow rate determination in trees
J. Čermák, Miroslav Deml, Miroslav Penka (1973) · Biologia Plantarum
Molecular Typing of S-alleles through Identification, Characterization and cDNA Cloning for S-RNases in Sweet Cherry
Ryutaro Tao, Hisayo Yamane, Akira Sugiura, Hideki Murayama (1999) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Melatonin and its potential biological functions in the fruits of sweet cherry
Yu Zhao, Dun‐Xian Tan, Qiong Lei, Hao Chen (2013) · Journal of Pineal Research
Effect of ripeness and postharvest storage on the evolution of colour and anthocyanins in cherries (Prunus avium L.)
Berta Gonçalves, Ana Paula Silva, José Moutinho‐Pereira, Eunice Bacelar (2006) · Food Chemistry
Fruit quality and bioactive compounds relevant to human health of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars grown in Italy
Gabriele Ballistreri, Alberto Continella, Alessandra Gentile, Margherita Amenta (2012) · Food Chemistry
The S haplotype‐specific F‐box protein gene, SFB, is defective in self‐compatible haplotypes of Prunus avium and P. mume
Koichiro Ushijima, Hisayo Yamane, Akiko Watari, Eiko Kakehi (2004) · The Plant Journal

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Prunus 29 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.