Fruit tree identification by leaf, bark and blossom

Leaves: start with the glands

Pick a typical leaf from the outer crown and look at the place where the blade meets the leaf stalk. The NC State profile of sweet cherry describes 2 small red or green glands at the base of the blade and a grooved leaf stalk; sour cherry leaves sometimes have them too. Peach leaves also carry 2 small glands at the base. Apple and pear profiles mention no such glands.

Then read the shape:

• Peach. The NC State peach profile gives leaves 2 to 6 inches long but only 1/2 to 1.5 inches wide, with a long-pointed tip, a toothed edge and a tendency to curl inward along the central vein.
• Plum. European plum leaves are egg-shaped, 2 to 4 inches long and 1 to 2 inches wide, with a wedge-shaped base, a pointed tip and a hairy upper surface.
• Pear. Pear leaves are oval and toothed, 1 to 4 inches long, and turn yellow in fall.
• Apple. NC State calls apple leaf shape and size "very variable"; the underside has raised veins and may be hairy.

All five have alternate leaves.

Bark: horizontal lines mean Prunus

Cherry and peach bark carries lenticels, the small breathing pores of bark, stretched into horizontal lines. NC State describes sweet cherry bark as having "very distinct horizontal lenticels", with old wood gray and horizontally ridged; sour cherry bark is gray-brown, may peel and has prominent horizontal lenticels; peach bark is gray with horizontal lenticels and becomes rough and scaly with age.

Apple bark is gray and smooth with raised lenticels, and NC State notes it looks similar to Prunus bark, so bark alone won't separate an apple from a young cherry. Pear bark starts smooth and gray, then becomes blocky or furrowed. European plum has thin, smooth bark on mature trees. For bark in general, see how to identify trees by bark.

Blossoms: color, cluster and timing

Spring is the easiest season for fruit tree identification, because the five trees flower differently.

• Peach: pink flowers, single or in pairs, 1 to 1.5 inches across, fragrant, opening before the leaves.
• Plum: showy white flowers with five petals and long stamens, single or in pairs, before the leaves. NC State notes European plum is the latest-blooming plum.
• Sweet cherry: white flowers 1 to 1.5 inches across, one to a few in a rounded cluster, emerging with the leaves. Sour cherry flowers come in groups of 3 to 5 in late spring.
• Apple: flowers 1 to 1.5 inches, white with a pink tinge that fades, in clusters of 4 to 6. The central "king bloom" opens first, according to the NC State apple profile.
• Pear: white flowers with parts in fives, in clusters. NC State Extension's Callery pear publication lists common pear as blooming in April in the Southeast, while ornamental Callery pear blooms from February to April.

If a pear-like tree blooms early and its flowers smell like rotting fish, it is a Callery pear, not a fruiting pear: see the Bradford pear page. Ornamental flowering cherries are covered on the cherry tree page.

Shape of the tree

Habit helps when the tree is bare. Peach grows to 15 to 25 feet with a rounded, open crown of upward-growing branches, and often has several trunks unless pruned. European plum is a large shrub or small tree, 10 to 20 feet, and may carry some spines. Sweet cherry is columnar to conical. Pear is upright and spreading. An apple grown from seed reaches 15 to 30 feet with a dense, rounded crown.

Size is a weak clue in a yard, though. NC State notes that many apple trees sold are grafted onto dwarfing rootstocks that keep them much smaller, and that pears are usually grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock too.

Naming the variety: fruit, records and DNA

Here an honest answer matters. Once you know the tree is an apple, NDSU Extension's horticulturist writes that there are hundreds of varieties and that it is almost impossible to look at an apple and say which one it is. NDSU's suggested route is a DNA test: Washington State University's MyFruitTree.org sends a kit, you snip young leaves into the tubes and mail them back, and the lab compares them with a database of thousands of apple trees. The result may be an exact match, a description of the tree's ancestry, or the finding that it is a one-of-a-kind seedling.

For pears, plums, cherries and peaches the logic is the same. A variety is defined mostly by its fruit (size, color, flavor, ripening date) and by its genetics, not by its leaves. The best evidence you can collect is the ripe fruit, the date it ripened, photos of the blossom and any records from the previous owner or the nursery. Take that to your county extension office.

Two traps. First, grafted trees can sprout from the rootstock at their base; NC State's Callery pear publication notes that such sprouts are genetically different enough to cross-pollinate with the flowers on the grafted top, so fruit from a sprout tells you nothing about the variety above it. Second, a tree that came up from a seed may turn out, as NDSU puts it, to be a one-of-a-kind seedling with no variety name at all.

What a photo app can and can't do here

A photo of a leaf, a blossom or the bark is usually enough for Tree Identifier to say apple, pear, plum, cherry or peach; all five are in the app's Collection. It cannot tell you the variety, and it shows no confidence score, so check its answer against the glands, bark and blossom tests above. Tree Identifier's Care Guide and follow-up chat can help with general care questions once you know the species. NC State reports peach seeds and wilted leaves as poisonous, especially in quantity; for anything about eating fruit from an unknown tree, ask a local expert. For the general method, see how to identify trees.