Species
+

Prunus cerasus L.

Amarelle Cherry, Dwarf Cherry, Sour cherry

Climate known 58 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 cerasus is an Old World species of Prunus in the subgenus Cerasus (cherries). It has two main groups of cultivars: the dark-red Morello cherry and the lighter-red Amarelle cherry. The sour pulp is edible.

Text from Wikipedia, “Prunus cerasus”, 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.
Native to
North Caucasus
Wild records
3 in range· 3 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Aug, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1277mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 131 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–41DLI
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 (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1277 mm a year, wettest May at 131 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.9 °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 Cerasus acida subsp. plena M.Roem.; Cerasus acida var. flore-pleno G.Kirchn.; Cerasus aproniana Beck; Cerasus austera subsp. multiplex M.Roem.; Cerasus caproniana subsp. flore-roseo-pleno Van Houtte 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 (April to November 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 (924 mm of 1277 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 21.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

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 1277 mm a year, wettest May at 131 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1277 mm a year at the habitat, 924 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 131 mm, driest February at 74 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 882 mm to 1941 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: 9 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 41 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 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 -3.9 °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 -3.9 °C, the absolute minimum -12.5 °C, about 17 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.1 °C in February (across the envelope cells -4.2 °C to 1.8 °C), warmest day 26.2 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.9 °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: 60 to 62% 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 26 °C in Aug; mean night from -0 °C in Feb to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 1277 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 3 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -12.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.9 °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°40°frost29.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-12.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 9–41RH 60–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 3 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 / 4–75 / 4–78 / 8–914 / 14–1419 / 18–1923 / 22–2326 / 25–2726 / 25–2722 / 21–2317 / 16–1811 / 10–137 / 5–9
Night °C0 / -4–3-0 / -4–23 / -1–47 / 4–812 / 9–1317 / 13–1720 / 16–2020 / 16–2116 / 12–1711 / 7–136 / 1–82 / -2–4
Rain mm86 / 81–20974 / 70–15786 / 70–147109 / 63–128131 / 69–138122 / 72–144115 / 64–128108 / 62–122111 / 69–153111 / 63–179117 / 85–228107 / 101–232
DLI10 / 10–1116 / 16–1724 / 24–2431 / 30–3237 / 35–3941 / 38–4241 / 39–4337 / 35–3828 / 27–2919 / 18–1911 / 11–129 / 8–9
RH %61 / 61–6561 / 60–6360 / 59–6361 / 60–6362 / 62–6362 / 62–6362 / 59–6261 / 58–6260 / 59–6261 / 59–6262 / 60–6462 / 60–65

Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 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 906:4355 (44.675, 37.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.9 °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 3 distinct grid cells holding the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 906:4355 (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 44.50_37.500, lapse-corrected +6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 48 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNorth Caucasus· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Canary Is., Madeira, Altay, Irkutsk, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Xinjiang, Korea, East Himalaya, Pakistan, West Himalaya, New South Wales, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Alaska, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, New Mexico, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Argentina South
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 3 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 1647 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.

Photographs

Prunus cerasusPrunus cerasusPrunus cerasusPrunus cerasusPrunus cerasusPrunus cerasusPrunus cerasusPrunus cerasus

Photographs: (c) Maksymilian Bobko, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Dmitriy Bochkov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Vladimir Atachkin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 cerasus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Total Anthocyanins and Total Phenolics of Fresh and Processed Cherries and Their Antioxidant Properties
Arusa Chaovanalikit, Ronald E. Wrolstad (2004) · Journal of Food Science
The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines
Michael Nathan, Robert Scholten (1999) · Annals of Internal Medicine
Relative Inhibition of Lipid Peroxidation, Cyclooxygenase Enzymes, and Human Tumor Cell Proliferation by Natural Food Colors
Muntha K. Reddy, Ruby Alexander-Lindo, Muraleedharan G. Nair (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Degradation Products of Cyanidin Glycosides from Tart Cherries and Their Bioactivities
Navindra P. Seeram, Leslie D. Bourquin, Muraleedharan G. Nair (2001) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Detection and Quantification of the Antioxidant Melatonin in Montmorency and Balaton Tart Cherries (Prunus cerasus)
Susanne Burkhardt, Dun Xian Tan, Lucien C. Manchester, Rüdiger Hardeland (2001) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Melatonin enhances root regeneration, photosynthetic pigments, biomass, total carbohydrates and proline content in the cherry rootstock PHL-C (Prunus avium × Prunus cerasus)
Virginia Sarropoulou, Kortessa Dimassi-Theriou, Ioannis Therios, M. Koukourikou-Petridou (2012) · Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
Effect of tart cherry juice (Prunus cerasus) on melatonin levels and enhanced sleep quality
Glyn Howatson, Phillip G. Bell, Jamie Tallent, Benita Middleton (2011) · European Journal of Nutrition
Sour Cherry ( Prunus cerasus L) Anthocyanins as Ingredients for Functional Foods
Federica Blando, C. Gerardi, Isabella Nicoletti (2004) · BioMed Research International

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 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 180 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.