Prunus cerasus, or the
sour cherryThe cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
, is a species of
PrunusPrunus is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes the plums, cherries, peaches, apricots and almonds. There are around 430 species spread throughout the northern temperate regions of the globe. Many members of the genus are widely cultivated for fruit and ornament.-Botany:Members of the genus...
in the subgenus
CerasusThe cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
(
cherriesThe cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
), native to much of
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and southwest
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. It is closely related to the wild cherry (
P. avium), but has a
fruitIn broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
that is more
acidAn acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...
ic.
The tree is smaller than the wild cherry (growing to a height of 4–10 m), has twiggy branches, and its crimson-to-near-black cherries are borne upon shorter stalks.
There are two varieties of the
sour cherry: the dark-red morello cherry and the lighter-red
amarelleThe Montmorency cherry is a variety of sour cherry grown in the United States, Canada and France, particularly in Michigan and in Door County, Wisconsin...
cherry.
Cultivation
Cultivated sour cherries were selected from wild specimens of
Prunus cerasus and the doubtfully distinct
P. acida from around the
CaspianThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
and
Black SeaThe Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
s, and were known to the
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
s in 300 BC. They were also extremely popular with Persians and the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
who introduced them into
BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
long before the 1st century AD. The fruit remains popular in modern-day
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
In Britain, their cultivation was popularised in the 16th century in the time of
Henry VIIIHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. They became a popular crop amongst Kentish growers, and by 1640 over two dozen named
cultivarA cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s were recorded. In the Americas,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
colonists planted the first sour cherry, 'Kentish Red', when they arrived.
Before the Second World War there were more than fifty cultivars of sour cherry in cultivation in England; today, however, few are grown commercially, and despite the continuation of named cultivars such as 'Kentish Red', 'Amarelles', 'Griottes' and 'Flemish', only the generic Morello is offered by most nurseries. This is a late-flowering variety, and thus misses more frosts than its sweet counterpart and is therefore a more reliable cropper. The Morello cherry ripens in mid to late summer, towards the end of August in southern England. It is self fertile, and would be a good
pollenizerA pollenizer or polleniser, sometimes pollinizer or polliniser is a plant that provides pollen.In American English, the words pollenizer and pollinator are often confused: A pollinator is the biotic agent that moves the pollen, such as bees, moths, bats, and birds...
for other varieties if it did not flower so late in the season.
Sour cherries require similar cultivation conditions to
pearThe pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
s, that is, they prefer a rich, well-drained, moist
soilSoil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
, although they demand more
nitrogenNitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
and
waterWater is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
than sweet cherries. Trees will do badly if waterlogged, but have greater tolerance of poor drainage than sweet varieties. As with sweet cherries, Morellos are traditionally cultivated by budding onto strong growing rootstocks, which produce trees too large for most gardens, although newer dwarfing rootstocks such as
Colt and
Gisella are now available. During spring, flowers should be protected, and trees weeded, mulched and sprayed with natural seaweed solution. This is also the time when any required
pruningPruning is a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. Reasons to prune plants include deadwood removal, shaping , improving or maintaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing nursery specimens for...
should be carried out (note that cherries should not be pruned during the dormant winter months). Morello cherry trees fruit on younger wood than sweet varieties, and thus can be pruned harder. They are usually grown as standards, but can be fan trained, cropping well even on cold walls, or grown as low bushes.
Sour cherries suffer fewer pests and diseases than sweet cherries, although they are prone to heavy fruit losses from
birdBirds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s. In summer, fruit should be protected with netting. When harvesting fruit, they should be cut from the tree rather than risking damage by pulling the stalks. Morello cherries freeze well and retain their flavour superbly.
Unlike most sweet cherry varieties, sour cherries are self fertile (sometimes inaccurately referred to as self-pollinating) or self
pollenizingA pollenizer or polleniser, sometimes pollinizer or polliniser is a plant that provides pollen.In American English, the words pollenizer and pollinator are often confused: A pollinator is the biotic agent that moves the pollen, such as bees, moths, bats, and birds...
. Two implications of this are that seeds generally run true to the cultivar, and that much smaller
pollinatorA pollinator is the biotic agent that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization or syngamy of the female gamete in the ovule of the flower by the male gamete from the pollen grain...
populations are needed because
pollenPollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
only has to be moved within individual flowers. In areas where pollinators are scarce, growers find that
stocking beehivesPollination Management is the label for horticultural practices that accomplish or enhance pollination of a crop, to improve yield or quality, by understanding of the particular crop's pollination needs, and by knowledgeable management of pollenizers, pollinators, and pollination...
in orchards improves yields.
Top Sour cherry Producers - 2009
Source: UN Food and Agriculture OrganizationThe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...
(FAO)
| Rank | Country | Sour cherry production
(Metric Tonnes) |
| 1 |
 Russia |
235,000 |
| 2 |
 Ukraine |
178,000 |
| 3 |
 Turkey |
140,000 |
| 4 |
 Poland |
138,000 |
| 5 |
 Serbia |
116,000 |
| 6 |
 United States |
98,000 |
| 7 |
 Hungary |
82,000 |
| 8 |
 Germany |
80,000 |
| 9 |
 Iran |
51,000 |
| 10 |
 Georgia (country) |
15,000 |
| 11 |
 Moldova |
15,000 |
| 12 |
 Belarus |
15,000 |
| 13 |
 Denmark |
14,000 |
| 14 |
 Albania |
8,200 |
| 15 |
 Independent State of Croatia |
7,500 |
Uses
Sour cherries, unlike their sweet counterpart, are too sour for some people's tastes to be eaten fresh, although Europeans and Middle Easterners regularly do so. The taste is a unique blend of tartness, with perfume-like aromas that affect the over-all flavor. They can also be used in cooking, especially in
soupSoup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...
s and
porkPork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
dishes,
cakeCake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...
s,
tartA tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard....
s, and
pieA pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....
s. Also dried sour cherries are commonly used in cooking. They are also used in combination with sugar, which balances the
acidAn acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...
ity and brings out the fruit's aroma and
flavorFlavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
. Thus a variety of liqueurs, desserts, preserves and drinks are made with sour cherries or sour cherry
syrupIn cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...
. In
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, sour cherries are especially prized for making spoon sweet by slowly boiling pitted sour cherries and sugar; the syrup thereof is used for
vyssináda, a refreshing beverage made by diluting the syrup with ice-cold water, or to garnish ice-cream and cakes.
See also
- Fruit trees
- Fruit tree forms
The Forms, or shapes, of most fruit trees can be manipulated by pruning and training in order to increase yield. Tree shaping can improve their suitability for different situations and conditions. Pruning a tree to a pyramid shape means that trees can be planted closer together...
- Fruit tree propagation
Fruit tree propagation is usually carried out through asexual reproduction by grafting or budding the desired variety onto a suitable rootstock.Perennial plants can be propagated either by sexual or vegetative means...
- Ginjinha, a Portuguese liqueur made from Sour Cherry
- Pruning fruit trees
Pruning fruit trees is a technique that is employed by arboriculture to control growth, remove dead or diseased wood, and stimulate the formation of flowers and fruit buds. Pruning often means cutting branches back to laterals or back to the main stem using proper pruning techniques. It may also...
- Griotte de Kleparow
- Sour cherry soup
- Kirsch
- Kriek
Kriek is a style of Belgian beer, made by fermenting lambic with sour Morello cherries. The name is derived from the Dutch word for this type of cherry . Traditionally "Schaarbeekse krieken" from the area around Brussels are used...
, a traditional Belgian beer made with sour cherries
- Vişinată
Vişinată is a Romanian alcoholic beverage produced from sour cherries , sugar and alcohol.It is very flavorful and sweet, and most often home-made. As a consequence, there is no "official" recipe for it...
, a Romanian drink made with sour cherries (vişina in Romanian)
- Vişne, Vişne Receli is a sour cherry preserve and Vişne Suyu is a popular fruit juice in Turkey
- Syzygium corynanthum
Syzygium corynanthum is a common Australian tree, growing from near Taree, New South Wales to tropical Queensland. Common names include Sour Cherry and Killarney Satinash...
, an Australian rainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
tree also known as the Sour cherry