White flowers about 2 cm across, each on its own long stalk off a green shoot, open from February as the first leaves start to unfold.
Introduced, naturalised · Up to 15 m
Cherry plum
Prunus cerasifera · Rosaceae
Cherry plum is a small, bushy tree that fills with white blossom from February, as its first leaves start to open. Its thin young shoots are shiny green.
Often mistaken for blackthorn. How to tell them apart →Know it by
BlossomAbout 2 cm, each on its own long stalk, as first leaves unfold.
LeavesUp to 7 cm, rounded teeth, fine hairs along the veins beneath.
Green shootsThin and shiny, soon losing their fine hairs.
BlossomAbout 2 cm, each on its own long stalk, as first leaves unfold.LeavesUp to 7 cm, rounded teeth, fine hairs along the veins beneath.Green shootsThin and shiny, soon losing their fine hairs.Then check · BarkDark grey, with rows of small white pores, and splitting into wide cracks on older trunks.
How to identify a cherry plum
Fresh green and glossy, up to 7 cm, tapering at both ends, with rounded teeth and fine hairs along the veins underneath.
Thin, shiny green shoots that soon lose their fine hairs and stay green through their first year.
Learn the cherry plum in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
Henry Miller, CC BY 4.0Shawn O'Donnell, CC BY 4.0
Paul Cook, CC BY 4.0
jamie-aa, CC BY 4.0Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0When to look
JFMAMJJASOND
In leaf
Flowers
Plums
In leaf: February to November · Flowers: February to March · Plums: April to September
Every tree on the calendar · How to identify trees in winter
Where you’ll find it
Planted in hedges, gardens and streets, in the country and in towns. It spreads readily from them, and grows wild through most of Britain.
What it’s mistaken for
Cherry plum or blackthorn?Both fill the early hedges with white blossom.Flower and its stalk→
Cherry plum or purple-leaved plum?Purple-leaved plum is the purple form of cherry plum, planted along town streets.Colour of a leaf→
Cherry plum or wild cherry?Both carry white blossom on long flower stalks, in the same hedges and wood edges.How the flowers are held→
- Ornamental cherryBoth are small trees of streets and gardens, with blossom in spring. Flowers. Cherry plum: five petals round a brush of threads. Ornamental cherry: often double, petals right to the middle.
In the app
There’s more of the cherry plum in Treely
- Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
- Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
- A short round each dayUntil you know the cherry plum on sight, from any side
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
Free to download.
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: Henry Miller (CC BY 4.0), Shawn O'Donnell (CC BY 4.0), Daniel Cahen (CC BY 4.0), Paul Cook (CC BY 4.0), jamie-aa (CC BY 4.0), Virn Stothers (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.