Muntingiaceae
How to identify a Jamaican cherry tree
Muntingia calabura · also called Panama berry, cherry of the Rio Grande
Small, red, fig-textured cherry with a cotton-candy-sweet flavor and tiny gritty seeds. Extraordinarily fast to establish and bear, often planted as a quick shade or pioneer tree as much as for its fruit; bears nearly continuously in frost-free climates.
Field marks
These features are typical of the genus Muntingia, so they help confirm you are looking at the right group; the fruit and the details below separate the species.
- Long, horizontal branches spread in layers.
- Leaves are soft, slightly sticky-hairy, finely toothed and lopsided at the base. The small red fruit are full of tiny seeds.
Check a photo
Photograph one whole, mature leaf from above, or a flower or fruit, and the identifier will return ranked matches. If Jamaican cherry is the top result, the field marks above are your second opinion.
Leaves, flowers, fruit, or bark — closer and sharper identifies better. Your photo is identified and discarded, never stored.
Where and when you will find it
- Origin / cultivation history
- Tropical Americas
- USDA zones
- 10-11
- Climate
- Tropical — an extremely fast-growing pioneer tree, adaptable to poor soils.
- Fruiting season
- Season not documented; check local sources
- How often grown
- Widely grown
A tree growing well outside the climate above is more likely to be a look-alike.
Growing it: seedling or grafted?
A young tree with no fruit is harder to identify and easy to mislabel, so it helps to know how long it takes to reach fruiting age and how it is usually propagated.
- Years to first fruit
- Seedling ~1-2 yrs — one of the fastest-fruiting trees in general cultivation
- Propagation
- Seed, cuttings.
Map your Jamaican cherry trees
CanopyTwin keeps every tree on a map with its species, cultivar, photos and history, and counts flowers and fruit from survey photos. It is built for orchards, nurseries and collectors of tropical and rare fruit.
More identification guides: free plant identifier · tropical fruit tree identifier · fruit tree identifier · all species guides