What kind of cherry tree would grow on the coast?

I just ran into a cherry tree with ripening fruit but I thought I was to warm for cherries? What cherry would be growing in the low country.

Crabapples perhaps?

ardesia, that was my immediate reaction when I saw the photo. The freckled surface of the fruit looks more like an apple skin to me than a smooth cherry skin. I remember my grandfather had a cherry tree 50 odd years ago, it bloomed but I never remember any fruit on it. Course, the only cherries I have ever seen have been in grocery stores, so I don't really know what a cherry on a tree would look like.

Edited to add. Checking Google for pictures of cherry fruit, I notice that none I viewed has the little bloom thingy on the bottom of the berry. This is something that all varieties of apples seem to have, which seems to indicate a core type arrangement for the seeds inside. Cherries are a pit seed type and do not seem to have this "bloom stem thing"

This message was edited Jul 18, 2009 8:16 AM

Yep. Crabapple. Cherries do not have the blossom spray, completely smooth. Both leaf and fruit clearly crabapple.

I thought it looked more like a crab apple but the people who lived where this tree is said it's a cherry. The thing that threw me off is the stems look exactly like cherries to me. The way the fruit was on tree too. Crab apple makes better sense to me. On the other hand I haven't seen a cherry tree in person for maybe 20 years. When they said cherry my mind filled in the blanks.

There are low chill sweet cherries now that we can plant here in the South. I planted two last fall, Royal Lee and Minnie Royal. They seem to be very happy so far, hope they stay that way :)


*Edited to add, I'm pretty sure those are crabapples in that pic. Definitely not cherries.

This message was edited Jul 22, 2009 3:20 PM

Malpighia glabra---"Barbadoes cherry"--- might could make here in a really protected environment, but I haven't been willing to chance it yet. Other than than that, I know of no "cherry" that can survive these climes...