Mongolian cherry

Family

Rosaceae

Habit

Shrub

Height

1.8 m

Spread

4.5 m

Growth

medium

Lifespan

40 years

First yield

after 3 years

Hardiness

zone 3–8

Shade tolerance

full sun

Soil

Sand, Silt, Loam

Soil moisture

dry – moist

pH

6 – 7.8

Edible: The fruits are round, scarlet and about a centimetre across, weighing two to four grams each; four to seven kilograms per shrub can be expected. They ripen in the second half of July. In flavour the provenances planted as landscape shrubs in Central Europe are tart-sour and little suited to eating raw, though individual types do become sweet and pleasant when fully ripe, which makes tasting before planting worthwhile. Besides sugar the fruits contain organic acids and vitamin C. Processed they give jam, juice and liqueur, best blended with sweeter fruit. In Russia the species is used deliberately as a fruit crop, where some 29 fruiting cultivars from pure selections and sour cherry crosses are offered.

Medicinal: Little of medicinal substance is recorded for the steppe cherry itself; what circulates comes largely from the closely related sour cherry. There, a decoction of the dried fruit stalks counts as a mild diuretic — a household tradition never clinically tested. The fruits are tart and rich in vitamin C and anthocyanins; they are a food and not a remedy, even though anthocyanins are generally regarded as antioxidant. As in all Prunus species the kernels, leaves and bark contain cyanogenic glycosides that release hydrogen cyanide on chewing, so home-made kernel extracts should be avoided. The flesh of the fruit is harmless.

Other uses: Beyond the fruit, the practical value of the dwarf cherry lies in its habit. Its far-reaching root system stabilises banks and erosion-prone slopes quickly and lastingly — this is its commonest use in landscape planting. Its low stature also suits it to low hedges, to greening planted blocks and dry-wall tops, and to larger containers. In breeding it is sought after as a carrier of extreme winter hardiness: at the University of Saskatchewan it was crossed with sour cherry, producing the dwarf Romance series of 2004 with 'Crimson Passion', 'Juliet' and 'Romeo'. Top-worked forms such as 'Globosa' serve as small-crowned ornamental trees.

Site: Full sun and warmth; the ground cherry tolerates light shade, but fruit sets only in full sun. It is a species of continental dry ground, markedly hardy and heat-tolerant, and wants loose, free-draining soils that stay rather dry, with plenty of lime — loam and loess are ideal, while wet and waterlogged ground it avoids. The choice of planting stock is decisive: own-rooted plants spread by suckers into colonies and belong on banks, on the tops of dry stone walls and in low shrub hedges; those grafted onto wild cherry make no suckers and suit small gardens and containers. At 0.8 to 1.6 metres it stays low. Care: No pruning is needed; the species is undemanding. Do not feed it, and summer drought does it no harm. Brown rot occurs, but only in years of very high rainfall and on unsuitable, over-wet soils. Note how readily it crosses with sour cherry: near one, seedlings come out uneven and grow taller than the species. When choosing a cultivar a taste test is worthwhile, as fruit quality varies greatly between types.

The species is easily raised from seed. Stones are taken after ripening in the second half of July, washed and cold-stratified over winter, most simply in a sheltered outdoor seedbed; germination follows in spring. Own-rooted plants then propagate themselves by root suckers, which can be severed and moved in autumn or early spring — the quickest route to new plants. Cultivars and selections are grafted, usually on wild cherry and then grown as a small-crowned standard. Note the ready hybridisation with sour cherry to Prunus × eminens: seedlings from stands near sour cherries come out correspondingly variable and often grow taller.

The dwarf cherry is native to Germany and remarkably productive for so small a shrub. At its flowers, which appear in May in umbels of three to six, 46 wild bee species have been recorded, chiefly mining, yellow-faced and furrow bees; none of them is a specialist, but one moth is — of the 34 caterpillar species feeding on it, the white satin-spinner depends on it. Seven beetle species are tied to its wood. The scarlet fruits are taken by blackbird, magpie, barred warbler and pheasant. Because the species forms dense, low colonies, a shaded and undisturbed ground layer develops beneath it — in the warm fringe communities of its natural range a small habitat in its own right.

Special features: forms closed colonies by root suckers - plants grafted on P. avium do not; character species of the Prunetum fruticosae, wild in Central Europe only as a relict; hybridises readily with P. cerasus → Prunus x eminens (taller, larger leaves, little fruit), introgression increases eastwards; Monilia only in very wet years; fruit set only in full sun; fruit quality highly type-dependent - taste before buying;

Eurasia: Central and Eastern Europe to western Siberia and Central Asia. The range of the European dwarf cherry runs from the southern Rhine valley and the Apennine peninsula across the eastern edge of the Alps and Thuringia to the Caucasus, western Siberia and Central Asia. In Central Europe it is wild only in a few climatically favoured districts: Rhenish Hesse holds the westernmost stands, joined by Lower Franconia, the Saale-Unstrut region, the Oder area and parts of Bohemia, Moravia, Lower Austria and Burgenland. In Russia and Ukraine it is additionally grown as a fruit shrub and deliberately crossed with sour cherry; in Canada it served as a parent for extremely hardy dwarf cherries.

The dwarf cherry is a plant of dry, continental sites. It grows in warmth-loving dry scrub, on sunny slopes, along track margins and banks, at rock edges, in sunken lanes, abandoned quarries and on vineyard walls, mostly over limestone or loess. In Central Europe it is a character species of the Prunetum fruticosae, a fringe community between dry grassland and woodland. Because it forms closed colonies by root suckers it stabilises open, erosion-prone slopes. It avoids wet and waterlogged ground, takes summer drought and heat well, and tolerates light shade, though full sun is needed for a good crop.