Are some types of cherry poisonous?

ALIBOBSY

Ok well we have a cherry tree in our garden which I know is edible as we planted it-not had many cherries yet,but this is its third year here and its covered with blossom so hoping for a good year.

Alongside the edge of the pavement where we live is quite a wide strip of grass and this year the council have been and planted a load of trees in this. These trees are also covered in blossoms and look so like our cherry I am wondering if they are going to be edible or not.

No labels on the trees, but the leaves are very simular to ours. Both lots of blossom are white, but with different coloured stamens.

Obviously will watch and see what grows, but want to know if any type of cherry is poisonous before I give anything a go lol.
Will try for a picture if the rain eases off.
Ali x

Leif

Dunno. I used to pick wild cherries, though it was not easy as the wild cherry tree is very tall. I think your main problem is mistaking a cherry for some other species, though I cannot think of any lookalikes.

Farway

I suspect the council have planted "bird cherries" [try Google], which as name implies are for the birds and good blossom. My local Morrison's and Lost gardens of Heligan, and no doubt thousands of others have done this wildlife friendly planting

They are not poisonous, but the birds will be up & scoffing well before you are, and they are only small beak sized cherries anyway, so not worth the effort IMO

SailorSam

I got two of those cherry trees from Morrisons and last year saw my first tiny fruit. Next morning they were gone, so much for trying to make the garden wildlife friendly and encourage the birds. I'll cover them up this year,

Farway

SailorSam wrote: »

I got two of those cherry trees from Morrisons and last year saw my first tiny fruit. Next morning they were gone, so much for trying to make the garden wildlife friendly and encourage the birds. I'll cover them up this year,

Surely the birds ate them while you where still in bed?

Just how wildlife friendly do you want to be? The birds loved them, why would you want to net them?

You did encourage the birds, but you were still in your pit when they had their breakfast:D

SailorSam

There was another cherry tree next to them with 'bird cherries' on it, they ignored that.

Farway

SailorSam wrote: »

There was another cherry tree next to them with 'bird cherries' on it, they ignored that.

As I would ignore the corned dog sarnies for the lobster :beer:

paddy's_mum

As far as I know, no species of cherry fruit is poisonous. However, many taste horribly sour or bitter.

The birds don't care although I have also noticed that they'll take dessert (sweet?) cherries long before they get round to the less palatable ones, often waiting until well into the foothills of winter when hunger makes them a lot more acceptable!

Budget_Gardener

Basically, if it's a large enough cherry fruit to bother with it's likely to be perfectly edible. The tiny-fruited bird cherries are ornamental and I don't think they're edible. I don't, however, think they're poisonous.
That said, if it's a cherry tree that isn't protected by netting, you'll be lucky to get the fruits before the blackbirds do!

Leif

paddy's_mum wrote: »

As far as I know, no species of cherry fruit is poisonous. However, many taste horribly sour or bitter.

Don't Morello cherries taste very sour? Ideal for jams and pies though.