Cherries are in the genus Prunus with a few other delicious fruit trees: almonds, peaches, plums, and apricots. The fruit of these trees is called a drupe or stone fruit, a fruit with a sweet fleshy outside and a hard, stony center or pit encasing the seed. Other plants that have drupes are coffee, olives, and coconut.
More than just a homegrown sweet summer treat, cherry trees make a great addition to any garden. They are usually the first fruit tree to ripen in the early summer. Many ornamental Japanese varieties are grown specifically for their dazzling springtime show of fragrant pink or white blooms. The blooms of cherry trees are also very attractive to pollinators like hummingbirds and bees, which means that having a cherry tree in your garden will benefit your other plants as well. The trees are very hardy – many varieties are grown in extremely varied climates from the tropics to the arctic tundra.