Are all cherries edible?

 


Are all cherries growing on all trees likely to be found in the UK
edible?




--
Tufty

 


Tufty;862727 Wrote:

in the UK

I'm not aware of any of them being poisonous, but many of them don't
taste nice,
especially the fruit of ornamental species.

But you may have to be a little careful about what you mean by cherry.
The term
cherry covers a number of species, being a particular
subfamily of the prunus
genus.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry
gives a list of about 40 species.

There is also Prunus laurocerasus, cherry laurel, a very common
evergreen
hedging plant, which although a Prunus and called a cherry,
isn't strictly
speaking a cherry. I've always thought of this one as
being poisonous, but on
checking just now apparently you can even eat
the fruit of this one, even though
the rest of the plant is poisonous,
though whether you'd want to eat it is
another matter.  But it is very
similar to, and often confused with, Prunus
lusitanica, whose fruit is
rather doubtful, but usually tastes sufficiently
horrible that you
probably wouldn't eat it in error.

And there is also Prunus cerasifera, the cherry plum, which a plum
rather than a
cherry.  Which is delicious.




--
echinosum

 


I don't know if I have put this reply in the right place. These forums
aren't
all that easy to use, until you know how. Anyway, thank you for
the reply.
It was about a cherry tree in a friend's garden. It looks like any
other
free-standing cherry tree, not in a hedge and not ornamental, and
he was just
letting the fruit fall and rot, so I asked him why he wasn't
eating them, then
thought "oops".Maybe I shouldn't just go around saying
you can eat all sorts of
cherries.
I think I'll tell him to try one next year.
I'm assuming you can also eat any sort of ordinary looking plum fruit
too. I do
and I'm still here.

echinosum;862957 Wrote:

many of them don't

term cherry covers a number of species, being a particular

> subfamily of the

prunus genus.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry

> gives a list of about 40

species.

hedging plant, which although a Prunus and called a cherry,

> isn't strictly

speaking a cherry. I've always thought of this one as

> being poisonous, but on

checking just now apparently you can even eat

> the fruit of this one, even

though the rest of the plant is poisonous,

> though whether you'd want to eat it

is another matter.  But it is very

> similar to, and often confused with, Prunus

lusitanica, whose fruit is

> rather doubtful, but usually tastes sufficiently

horrible that you

than a cherry.  Which is delicious.




--
Tufty