Lookalikes

Bird cherry or wild cherry?

Both are native cherries with white flowers and two small red knobs on the leaf stalk.

The quickest check

The quickest check is how the flowers are held. Bird cherry: up to 35 strung along one spike. Wild cherry: posies of two to six, each on its own stalk. No flowers on the tree? Check the leaf edge.

At a glance

Look at	Bird cherry	Wild cherry
How the flowers are held	Up to 35 strung along one spike	Posies of two to six, each on its own stalk
Leaf edge	Fine sharp teeth, about 1 mm deep	Deep blunt teeth, uneven in size
Trunk	Smooth dull grey, finely roughened	Purplish grey, peeling in level papery strips
Ripe cherry	Shiny black, about 8 mm, spaced down a stem	Red to dark purple, up to 2 cm across

Four ways to tell them apart

How the flowers are heldFlowers

Bird cherry: how the flowers are held — Bird cherryUp to 35 strung along one spike

Wild cherry: how the flowers are held — Wild cherryPosies of two to six, each on its own stalk

Leaf edgeLeaves

Bird cherry: leaf edge — Bird cherryFine sharp teeth, about 1 mm deep

Wild cherry: leaf edge — Wild cherryDeep blunt teeth, uneven in size

TrunkBark

Bird cherrySmooth dull grey, finely roughened

Wild cherryPurplish grey, peeling in level papery strips

Ripe cherryCherries

Bird cherry: ripe cherry — Bird cherryShiny black, about 8 mm, spaced down a stem

Wild cherry: ripe cherry — Wild cherryRed to dark purple, up to 2 cm across

Think you can tell them apart now? Try the tree quiz: real photographs, and what gives each tree away.Take the quiz

The two trees

Bird cherry

Prunus padus

In May, once it is in leaf, bird cherry opens white flowers strung along spikes at the shoot tips. Its smooth, dull grey bark has a strong, unpleasant smell when rubbed.

Wild cherry

Prunus avium

Wild cherry is a tall tree with shiny, reddish brown bark that peels in horizontal strips. In April it is covered in clusters of white flowers.

How to identify wild cherry →

Their other lookalikes

Wild cherry or blackthorn?Quickest check: how the flowers sit

Wild cherry or cherry plum?Quickest check: how the flowers are held

Wild cherry or crab apple?Quickest check: the trunk

Wild cherry or downy birch?Quickest check: the colour of the trunk

Wild cherry or ornamental cherry?Quickest check: the outline

In the app

See them side by side in Treely

Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them

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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: corporal-natural (CC0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), norrland (CC0), ellyne (CC0), Татьяна Максимова (CC BY 4.0), kirstyshannon (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.