# Are almonds cherries? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 28, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314 "2014-12-28T00:20:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/1 "2014-12-28T00:20:07Z")
Most people probably couldn’t tell the difference between an almond tree and a cherry blossom. Since the term “cherry” describes a lot of various species in the Prunus genus, some of which aren’t necessarily any more related to a sakura or sweet cherry than to an almond, apricot or peach is, could it be said that the entire genus of blossoming trees are “cherries” broadly speaking? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/2 "2014-12-28T00:26:32Z")
no. otherwise we’d be asking if cherries are plums. Almonds, cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, etc. are all _drupes_. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/3 "2014-12-28T02:03:55Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > no. otherwise we’d be asking if cherries are plums. Almonds, cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, etc. are all _drupes_. According to Wiki all of these come under the genus _Prunus_, with each being classified as its own species. In biology co-generic species are usually quite similar, e.g. zebras and domestic horses; I don’t know about plants but I would expect the same principle to apply there as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/4 "2014-12-28T02:18:05Z")
If you’ve ever had a peach pit split open after you separated the pit from the flesh, you’ll notice that there is something that looks very much like an almond in the [center of the pit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach#mediaviewer/File:Prunus_persica_pit.jpg). I’ve been tempted but was never brave enough to try to eat that thing. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/5 "2014-12-28T02:25:00Z")
Good call since they contain cyanide. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/6 "2014-12-28T03:05:40Z")
No, they’re peaches. Same genus, though. I’m not entirely being facetious. Sweet almonds, bitter almonds, and peaches (including nectarines, which are just peaches with a kind of baldness) all have different species names, because their fruit and seeds have different commercial applications, but biologically, they are strains of the same population. I don’t know if cherries are at all interfertile with almonds & peaches though. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/7 "2014-12-28T03:38:19Z")
> [@tnetennba](#): > > Good call since they contain cyanide. So do almonds. Peach pits are safe to eat in small quantities. At one time they were actually sold in small packets in UK whole food stores. This stopped after a toddler became ill after eating several such packets. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/8 "2014-12-28T03:45:24Z")
> [@tnetennba](#): > > Good call since they contain cyanide. Hasn’t killed me yet. And it’s amygdalin, which can release cyanide, but also delicious benzaldehyde. Which is why I cook one cherry dish with the pits in. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/9 "2014-12-28T04:10:09Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > I don’t know if cherries are at all interfertile with almonds & peaches though. Me either. I wonder how close to being identical an almond tree is to a sakura or sweet cherry, genetically. I’m pretty sure they’re far more alike than a human and a chimp. I know species within the same genus can often hybridize. My guess would be you could cross an almond with a cherry but I’m not sure it would be fertile. It may be more of a “mule” tree. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/10 "2014-12-28T09:11:54Z")
This reminds me of a story. Once, there was a young woman who wanted to do a little psychological experiment. So she carefully bred cherry trees to bloom in multiple colors, and arranged to have them planted such that the trees of one color would spell out the name of some other color. You know, to test the [Stroop effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect). However, the instructions (which were, admittedly, odd) weren’t transmitted to the workers (all starving underpaid grad students) effectively, so the groups of various colored cherry trees were planted such that the colors matched the names, completely invalidating her experiment. She’s now the Stroop drupe group blooper girl, Stroop drupe blooper girl, Stroop drupe blooper girl… She now focuses on Anglo-Saxon royalty. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/11 "2014-12-28T09:51:40Z")
As usual, there is no strict correlation between the common name groupings and the taxonomic ones. Some of the flowering ‘cherry’ varieties, for example, are actually species of plum (or at least that is to say that their fertile, very close relatives bear plum-like fruit. Nature cares about no such human-imposed categories though. Almonds aren’t cherries, but only really because we have a fairly tight and well established notion of what we mean by ‘almond’. ---
**Author:** ![yawuntz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a5b964/32.png) [@yawuntz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yawuntz)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/12 "2014-12-28T09:59:22Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > … Stroop drupe group blooper girl, Stroop drupe blooper girl, Stroop drupe blooper girl… > > She now focuses on Anglo-Saxon royalty. Nothing can stop her now… ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/13 "2014-12-28T10:53:16Z")
To summarize, plums, cherries, almonds, chokecherries, peaches, nectarines, and doubtless others, are all distnct species in the genus prunus (Latin for plum, I assume, since the French for plum is prune). And they are all in rose family, which includes also apples and pears (distinct genera). The seeds of all these families contain cyanide. However, almonds specifically, have been bred to minimize the amount of that cyanide. An occasional “bitter almond” will be a throwback (or maybe a mutant) that is high in cyanide. Apple seeds contain cyanide too, but in very small amounts. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/14 "2014-12-28T12:42:48Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > Most people probably couldn’t tell the difference between an almond tree and a cherry blossom. Well, I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure the almond trees are a lot bigger than the cherry blossoms. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/15 "2014-12-29T01:01:00Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > So do almonds. Peach pits are safe to eat in small quantities. At one time they were actually sold in small packets in UK whole food stores. This stopped after a toddler became ill after eating several such packets. One idiot toddler gets sick and so no one can have it? That’s dumb. Not that I’d eat that, but I’m just sayin. ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/16 "2014-12-29T02:48:16Z")
I really want to grow one of these: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9EuJ9QlikY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9EuJ9QlikY) > [@](#): > > The Tree of 40 Fruit is an ongoing series of hybridized fruit trees by contemporary artist Sam Van Aken. Each unique Tree of 40 Fruit grows over forty different types of stone fruit including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/17 "2014-12-29T03:06:23Z")
The forty fruit tree is grafted, not hybridized. This means it’s really forty different trees assembled onto one tree which acts as a common trunk and roots. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/18 "2014-12-29T10:02:59Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > To summarize, plums, cherries, almonds, chokecherries, peaches, nectarines, and doubtless others, are all distnct species in the genus prunus (Latin for plum, I assume, since the French for plum is prune). And they are all in rose family, which includes also apples and pears (distinct genera). The seeds of all these families contain cyanide. However, almonds specifically, have been bred to minimize the amount of that cyanide. An occasional “bitter almond” will be a throwback (or maybe a mutant) that is high in cyanide. Apple seeds contain cyanide too, but in very small amounts. “Bitter almonds” aren’t just a throwback. They’re a distinct variety. Most sweet almond cultivars (and there are several significant cultivars grown just in the USA) are grafted and cloned on a massive scale. I don’t know how often a sport goes bitter, though maybe it could. Of course, the root stock is very likely something else, like a peach-almond hybrid, and it’s just possible that seeds from that could mix in. I’ve eaten a raw peach seed once. Very striking and intense flavor. I was under the impression that bitter almonds were bred for commercial cyanide production, but maybe they never really were; it seems inefficient. Industrial cyanide production largely uses coal and ammonia. Extract of bitter almond seems to have been used medicinally at one time, perhaps on the theory that something that tastes that bad must be good for you. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/19 "2014-12-29T13:35:07Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > I was under the impression that bitter almonds were bred for commercial cyanide production, but maybe they never really were; it seems inefficient. Industrial cyanide production largely uses coal and ammonia. Extract of bitter almond seems to have been used medicinally at one time, perhaps on the theory that something that tastes that bad must be good for you. Most commercial almond extracts IME are from bitter almonds. I think they’re likely solutions of the essential oil rather than proper extracts, since they taste and smell pretty much like benzaldehyde in alcohol, with no hydrogen cyanide odor. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314/20 "2014-12-29T18:04:09Z")
Bananas meet the botanical definition of “berries” – a fleshy fruit produced from a single flower and containing one ovary. So do Pumpkins. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-almonds-cherries/708314.md?page=2)