Black Cherry

Cerasus bigarella francofurtensis - Black Bigarreau Cherry

First described by Poiteau in 1807, the Black Bigarreau Cherry remains one of the most confidential and flavorful varieties in French pomology.

First noted in 1805 in Mr. Carrier's garden in Ville-d'Avray, it was later popularized by a nurseryman from Vitry with an evocative nickname: Chatenay, known as "Magnifique", renowned as much for his expertise as for his art of collecting rare fruits.

Firm and crisp flesh, shiny black skin, purplish juice that stains the fingers: this cherry embodies gustatory excellence and botanical rarity.

The tree is distinguished by its upright habit, its well-nourished and non-drooping branches unlike other bigarreau cherry trees.

Its deep dark green leaves are oval-elliptical, bordered with hairs on the veins, carried by a reddish petiole adorned with even redder glands.

Each tawny and robust fruit bud gives rise to three delicate white flowers, with petals sometimes notched in the shape of a heart.

The fruit, 22 millimeters long, wider towards the stem, hangs at the end of a 54 millimeter stem.

Its purplish, marbled, firm, and juicy flesh offers an exceptional flavor. Ripening in late June, this cherry is among the best of its kind.

This plate is extracted from the Traité des Arbres Fruitiers by Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalist illustration.
It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of illustrated botany.