Today I wanted to talk about a plant that is native to the lakeshores of Michigan.
This plant is a food crop that thrives in pure sand, is adapted to high winds, and that has a lot of potential for crop breeding.
Let’s take a look at the sand cherry:
Plant Profile:
Scientific Name: Prunus pumila
Preferred Habitat: Sandy poor soils low in organic matter, beaches, lakeshores, and sometimes well-draining urban landscapes.
Edible Parts: Fruit (and presumably flowers as well)
Distribution: Largely on the shores of the Great Lakes, although there are populations on the East Coast and in the Great Plains
Harvest Season: Midsummer (usually mid-late July in my area)
Key Identifiers: Shrub-like growth, thin lance-shaped leaves, small dark cherry-like fruit. They should be fairly easy to identify since there are few shrubs that grow on the lakeshores and fewer even that grow any kind of fruit.
Toxic Look-Alikes: The only one you may run into in a similar biome is common buckthorn. These grow more tree-like and have rounder leaves with defined veins rather than thin spear-shaped leaves like sand cherry.
Nutrition:
While there is pretty much no dedicated research on the nutrient profile of sand cherry, we do have very closely related species (such as pin cherry and choke cherry) that have generally similar nutrient profiles. Due to this, we can conclude that sand cherry has the following nutrients:
High in anthocyanins
High in antioxidants
Very high in polyphenols
High in vitamin C
High in vitamin A
Significant source of calcium
Significant source of magnesium
Significant source of iron
Significant source of potassium
Significant source of phosphorus
Many Prunus species that are close cousins have been used:
For fighting cancerous cells in research studies
To fight colds and flus
As an antibiotic
Tao support immune function
Uses
Largely, sand cherries can be used the way you’d use other wild cherries:
In baked goods, jams, juice, cocktails, syrups, oxymels, tinctures, as fruit leather, in pemmican, wine, ferments, or fresh off the shrub.
While I have enjoyed them fresh (and one of my children seems to love them) note that they are quite tart and borderline astringent. There is nearly no sweetness to detect in these pretty little fruits so don’t expect it! They also taste vaguely in-between a plum and a tart cherry.
You may find that they need some kind of sweetener like honey if you intend to make them into any sort of baked good.
As far as food forest gardens go, this is a great candidate if you live somewhere with sandy soils or even right on a beach!
Slightly unripe sand cherries
Growth Habits
Sand cherry tends to grow in a sprawling shrubby form with many branches that shoot out of the sand rather than a tree like you may be used to (strangely, the majority of cherry species grow like shrubs and not trees).
They can be found on the shores of the Great Lakes (that’s where I find them) to the Eastern Seaboard. There is also a western subspecies (P. pumila var besseyi.), an Appalachian subspecies (P. pumila var susqueahanae), and an Eastern subspecies (P. pumila var depressa).
Sand cherry grows upright, but can also be found creeping along the ground. This is probably an adaptation to survive high winds if I had to guess, but I’d need to observe them more.
The plant also tends to form colonies and send up suckers so when you find a bunch in an area, you’re likely looking at one large plant rather than several individuals.
Additionally, they are fairly fire resistant and tend to bounce back pretty well after wildfires, and they also produce pretty heavily once established.
The roots are good for erosion control as well.
Additional Information
Prunus species in general tend to hybridize well (although there are some caveats there).
Sand cherry has some great traits that make it excellent for breeding stock in my opinion:
Fire and wind resistance
Thrives in marginal soils
Shrubby growth-habit
Adapted to produce with almost no inputs
Drought tolerant
Erosion-controlling
Possible disease resistance (at least compared to modern cultivars)
There is a lot of potential for crossing these with domestic varieties of cherry or plum to improve vigor and performance. I am not the first to think of this or try it, historically there have been successful crosses!
These are what I think have a lot of potential for good crosses:
Beach plum x Sand Cherry (A more hardy plum for extreme sites.)
Apricot x Sand Cherry (This would be uncharted territory if it even worked. This would likely be a unique fruit that doesn’t commonly exist yet)
Nankang Cherry x Sand Cherry (An improved cherry alternative with better vigor)
Peach/Nectarine x Sand Cherry (This is a big reach, but if it worked you could have a naturally dwarfing peach with more vigor than most modern cultivars)
Chickasaw Plum x Sand Cherry (These are adapted to completely opposite climates, so you could get some really fun wildcard results with climate tolerance)
Cultivars
Not much innovation exists in sand cherries, but here are what can be purchased on the open market:
Western Sand Cherry (var. Besseyi) - This subspecies has slightly larger and more clustered fruit on average (although there is still variation)
Great Lakes Sand Cherry (var. Pumila) - This is the one in the photos above that grows more upright and is from the Great Lakes region.
Eastern (Dwarf) Sand Cherry (var. Depressa) - This subspecies grows like a creeping woody perennial along the ground rather than a tall shrub.
Appalachian Sand Cherry (var. Susquehanae) - Very similar to our Great Lakes variety, however the foliage is slightly bigger.
‘Pawnee Buttes’ Sand Cherry - This selection of Western Sand Cherry was selected to bear heavy yields, and to stay less than 2ft tall.
‘Stay Classy’ Purple Leaf Sand Cherry - This is a cross between the sand cherry and the cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) that is mostly used as an ornamental. I can’t figure out what its fruiting habits are, but the distinct purple leaves look very pretty and are an interesting trait.
The benefit to getting multiple of these subspecies is that there is natural genetic diversity. If you aren’t sure which will do best on your site, or you want to breed with them, this genetic diversity is very important!
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