Ornamental cherry
Ornamental cherry
Wild cherryjamie-aa, CC BY 4.0
Wild cherry
Lookalikes

Ornamental cherry or wild cherry?

Both have red knobs on the leaf stalk, and bark banded across with raised dots.

The quickest check

The quickest check is the outline. Ornamental cherry: low, limbs rising in a funnel from a short stem. Wild cherry: a spire when young, a spiky dome when old.

At a glance

Look atOrnamental cherryWild cherry
OutlineLow, limbs rising in a funnel from a short stemA spire when young, a spiky dome when old
Petals on one flowerOften twenty or more, packed to the middleFive, round a tuft of yellowish threads
Tip of each toothEvery tooth drawn out into a fine whiskerDeep blunt teeth, uneven in size

Three ways to tell them apart

OutlineShape
Ornamental cherry: outline
Ornamental cherryLow, limbs rising in a funnel from a short stem
Wild cherry: outlinejamie-aa, CC BY 4.0
Wild cherryA spire when young, a spiky dome when old
Petals on one flowerFlowers
Ornamental cherryOften twenty or more, packed to the middle
Wild cherryFive, round a tuft of yellowish threads
Tip of each toothLeaves
Ornamental cherry: tip of each toothwild_wind, CC BY 4.0
Ornamental cherryEvery tooth drawn out into a fine whisker
Wild cherry: tip of each tooth
Wild cherryDeep blunt teeth, uneven in size
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

Ornamental cherry

Prunus serrulata and its garden kin

Ornamental cherry is a low tree planted in streets, parks and gardens. In April it fills with blossom, often double and packed with petals. The young leaves are often red or bronze.

How to identify ornamental cherry →

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 cherryBird cherryWild cherry or bird cherry?Quickest check: how the flowers are heldWild cherryBlackthornWild cherry or blackthorn?Quickest check: how the flowers sitWild cherryCherry plumWild cherry or cherry plum?Quickest check: how the flowers are heldWild cherryCrab appleWild cherry or crab apple?Quickest check: the trunkWild cherryDowny birchWild cherry or downy birch?Quickest check: the colour of the trunk
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: charliefarrell2 (CC0), jamie-aa (CC BY 4.0), wild_wind (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.