Like all great artists, mother nature repeats her patterns objectively using just moment variations, making the phrase “unique” hard to apply. The cherry tree (Prunus spp.) is no exception. Even though the froth of spring blooms, polka dots of lemon and gray-brown, peeling bark may appear to differentiate the tree from all others, a number of different trees in the Prunus genus closely resemble the cherry. A cherry tree fundamental physical characteristics would allow you to pick it from a lineup even though they may be inadequate to differentiate it from relatives in the genus Prunus. You can always identify a cherry and distinguish it from its relatives, however, if you know what details to examine.
Look carefully at the flowers. Cherry tree flowers grow in white or pink clusters, with all blossom stalks arising from one central point. On the flip side, almond tree flowers grow in pairs, peach trees grow single flowers, and blackthorn trees bear flowers either separately or in pairs.
Count the styles. A style is that the long tubing topped with the stigma that connects into the flower’s ovary, the part that becomes the fruit. Each cherry tree blossom has just 1 style. Flowering crab-trees are able to look uncannily like cherry trees, but each flower has four to five styles. The flowers of the mespil tree have five styles, and apple and pear tree types have two to five.
Assess the fruit. Cherry plum trees and cherry trees appear to be mirror images even if decorated with fruit, but cherries are a bit smaller than cherry plums. If the fruit steps 3/4 of an inch or less, it is a cherry; cherry plums and routine plums are 1 inch or bigger.
Analyze the leaves. The cherry tree toothed leaves have been lance-shaped or oval and pointed at the tip. They are arranged alternately on divisions. As the tree is deciduous, its leaves fall in autumn.
Circle the tree to inspect the bark. A cherry tree bark is brownish or grey or a shade in between, and it often has thin rims running horizontally across the back. In some varieties, the bark peels in places to reveal a mahogany color beneath. A cherry tree may range between 6 and 40 feet tall, so height isn’t a distinguishing element.