Cherry

Lore & Background

The indigenous range of the sweet cherry extends through most of Europe, western Asia, and parts of northern Africa, and the fruit has been consumed throughout its range since prehistoric times. A cultivated cherry is recorded as having been brought to Rome by Lucius Licinius Lucullus from northeastern Anatolia, also known as the Pontus region, in 72 BCE. Cherries were introduced into England at Teynham, near Sittingbourne in Kent, by order of Henry VIII, who had tasted them in Flanders. Cherries, along with many other fruiting trees and plants, probably first arrived in North America around 1606 in the New France colony of Port Royal, which is modern-day Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

Reader's Guide

Cherries are significant as one of the earliest tree fruits to flower and ripen in temperate regions, with a short growing season that peaks in summer in the Northern Hemisphere and around Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere. The most common cultivated species are sweet cherry (Prunus avium) and sour cherry (Prunus cerasus), both originating in Europe and western Asia. Cultivation requires careful management due to pests such as the black cherry aphid and cherry fruit fly, as well as susceptibility to bacterial infections. Cherries are relatively expensive due to irrigation, spraying, labor, and vulnerability to rain and hail damage.

The fruit has been consumed since prehistoric times and was spread through Roman and later European expansion. The word 'cherry' derives from Old Northern French or Norman cherise from the Latin cerasum, referring to the ancient Greek region of Kerasous near Giresun, Turkey. The term is also used for some species outside the Prunus genus that bear similar fruits, such as 'Jamaican cherry' (Muntingia calabura) and 'Spanish cherry' (Mimusops elengi).