What is this tree and is the fruit edible?

[Lillian1961]

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Attached and inline are two pictures of a tree in our front ayrd. The leaves almost look red, even in the spring time. There are plenty of the little dark red fruits, about twice the size of a green pea. Some are shiny, some are dull. They almost look like cherries - long stems - but not quite. There is a definite blossom end at on end of the fruit.

What is this, and is it edible?

[j3707]

It looks like a cherry plum to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_plum

Cultivated cherry plums can have fruits, foliage, and flowers in any of several colors. Some varieties have sweet fruits that can be eaten fresh, while others are sour and better for making jam.

The cherry plum is a popular ornamental tree for garden and landscaping use, grown for its very early flowering. Numerous cultivars have been developed, many of them selected for purple foliage...

I discovered one in my neighborhood a few days ago. The tree has green leaves and is full of yellow fruits that look like cherries, but they are tasty little plums. I didn't know such a thing existed until then...a pleasant discovery.

A very attractive tree with all those colorful little plums...

[DoubleDogFarm]

I'm thinking it is a Ribes of some type. The leaf doesn't look right to be a gooseberry.

Eric

[rainbowgardener]

Eric, don't the flower currant berries come in bunches?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Redcu ... erries.jpg

are there Ribes that have single fruits? Gooseberry is a ribes too, so I didn't quite understand what you were saying about it.

Cherry plum is a Prunus species. I wouldn't have recognized it, but it seemed like a good fit to me.

But for Lillian, either way these are edible fruits, but you would have to try one to see how tasty it is. Some of the things it might be are quite tart.

[DoubleDogFarm]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... spa%29.jpg

I'm just guessing. Can you take a little better picture.


Eric

[!potatoes!]

gooseberries frequently come singley.

it looks more like a crabapple to me. let's see closeups of halved fruit, please!

[rainbowgardener]

The tree did look crab apple-y too me too. But crab apples have little apple shaped fruit. These looled perfectly round.

[!potatoes!]

yeah, i see that, though i have seen some very spherical crabapples...this is why i want a closeup.

(some of those fruits seem to have an [admittedly] gooseberryish tail on the flower end, too...but i'd like to see them better before making too many guesses)

[applestar]

Maybe it's some kind of an Amelanchier?

[j3707]

Whoops, didn't see that tail on the flower end before. Guess it helps to enlarge the photos.

A better picture would be nice...wait did someone say that already?