Bird Cherry

There are two types of Cherry native to Scotland - the Wild Cherry and the Bird Cherry. Although cousins they are in fact easy to tell apart, and they choose quite different places in the wild. The Bird Cherry could be said to be widespread but is not very common. It will not grow at great altitude, and favours burn-sides, growing in thickets or lines close to the water They commonly spread by sucker shoots from the roots of the older trees, also by layering, where leaning branches - ‘crannlach’ or ‘geug’ in Gaelic –touch the damp ground and take root. Their general form is towering but bushy and not very tall. The narrow trunk is smooth but mottled, a dark orange/brown, while the twigs are shiny and a rich chocolate brown. The soft wood inside the thin bendy branches has a sweet smell like marzipan. The brown buds – large but close against the twig – open in April to reveal very bright green leaves, ‘duilleagan’ in Gaelic. The leaves – velvety to the touch - become oblong and pointed, a smooth deep green with very fine toothing, turning yellow and sometimes deep red in Autumn. The flowers – both sexes together on the same tree – appear in long clusters of creamy white in May, and have a sweet malty scent. The flowers turn to green little cherries – ‘silisdear’ in Gaelic - becoming blue/black by Autumn, like bunches of little black grapes. Having said that, the fruits are stripped by birds almost before they are ripe – hence the common name. The Bird Cherry can be found in damp fertile places scattered throughout Southern Scotland and in the Western and Central Highlands, and can be seen in some density in Highland Perthshire between Aberfeldy and Glen Isla, and at Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness, where the hill waters spread out to the Loch – close clusters of creamy white in early Summer.