Monday, September 27, 2010

Identifying the Cherry Trees

Two commenters to my last post gently pointed out that cherry season is long gone, which I think is hilarious!  Of course!  I knew cherry season was, like 6 weeks ago because I have some cherry ice cream in my freezer that I made with fresh cherries from a farm stand.  That was early August.  What I was doing is ignoring evidence that doesn't fit with my worldview that these are cherry trees.  Not on purpose.  I really never made the connection.

So it's back to trying to figure out what these trees are if they're not cherries.

Two years ago when I first saw this house, I took pictures of some trees in the yard.  Not knowing what the fruit was, I held off on tasting it. 

Mid-September 2008
Then last summer, I tried to identify the trees and decided they were Northstar cherry trees.  I wrote blog posts about not knowing here, and then deciding here. I posted a picture of my lawnmower in front of two of the trees. This area is much tamer now than it was last summer.

June, 2009

Here's what the fruit looks like on the outside and the inside.  They largest are about 1 cm diameter (yes, I know that's very small for cherries.  I just thought my soil was inhospitable. Yup, that's me, ignoring facts.)

Here's what the leaves look like. They have the pinnate, serrated leaves as expected, but many leaves are lobed.
So, um, if anyone knows what this is, I'd love to be enlightened.  I've got 2 cups of the berries in the house and I'm not entirely sure what to do with them!

4 comments:

  1. Hmm. A mystery I'm looking forward to hearing the solution of!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was thinking pin cherries, but I don't know if the leaves are right. http://www.ehow.com/how_4501249_identify-pin-cherries-wild.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you might have wild currant. Here is where I found what looks like your plant.

    http://www.ehow.com/how_6622447_identify-wild-currant-shrubs.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. I feel like one of the students I teach . . . they know the answer and have their hand sky high jumping out of their seat . . . you have Hawthorn trees! There are a ton of varieties, but the fruits are edible and go by the name of Haw fruits. Here's a link to Raintree nursery where they sell Hawthorn trees under 'Unusual Edibles' : http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/producttype.cfm?producttype=Hawthorn . If you scroll down your variety looks closest to 'Little Golden Star Hawthorn'. You'll have to do some research on varieties but from what I know, they're all edible and used for making jelly. Have fun!

    ReplyDelete