Cherry plum, scientific name Prunus cerasifera, commonly known as wild sour plum, is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the Rosaceae family. It is an extremely precious, rare and endangered primitive wild forest fruit in the world.

Cherry plums are distributed in Central Asia, Tianshan, Iran, Asia Minor, the Balkans and China; in China they are distributed in Xinjiang. Grows in hillside forests or gravelly slopes at an altitude of 800-2000 meters, as well as at the waterside of canyons.

Cherry plum is rich in a variety of vitamins, amino acids and minerals. Its fruit contains Vc, VB1, VB6, beta-carotene, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, magnesium, protein, water-soluble fruit It is rich in nutrients such as gum, sugar, acid, and soluble solids, especially potassium.

Not only does it have outstanding nutritional value, but it also has certain medical effects. The peel contains rich and stable red pigments and has high application value in the fields of food, medicine, forestry and other fields. The pulp can also be processed into drinks, jams, etc., and pectin, fruit acid and other substances can be extracted from the fruit. The kernels can be processed into nutritious protein drinks after debittering and deacidification. In addition, it is also an excellent product for making fruit wine.

As a valuable wild fruit tree resource in Ili wild fruit forest in Xinjiang, the natural population of wild cherry plum plays an important role in protecting the biodiversity of wild fruit forests and maintaining and improving ecosystem functions.

Extended information

Wild cherry plum germplasm resources are rare wild fruit tree germplasm resources in Xinjiang, China. They are only distributed in Huocheng County, Ili Region, Xinjiang, China, and have extremely important protection value. Due to the unreasonable development and utilization of wild cherry plums, wild cherry plum resources continue to decrease. Predatory resource development, overgrazing, farmland reclamation and other factors have led to serious damage to wild cherry and plum fruit tree resources. The area of ??wild fruit forests has been reduced and is on the verge of extinction.

Causes of endangerment:

1. Unreasonable logging has caused the lower limit of distribution of wild cherry plums to move up significantly, and the distribution density of wild cherry plums and other tree species has been significantly reduced. The trees were cut down indiscriminately, and the vegetation under the trees was obviously damaged.

2. The serious phenomenon of blind deforestation and land reclamation has destroyed large areas of wild cherry and plum resources; the population density on the mountain has increased, and people enter Daxigou every year to engage in economic development, resource harvesting, tourism, etc. The number of people involved in the project continues to increase, and the ecological environment in the ditch continues to deteriorate, causing certain biological species in the wild fruit forest area to become endangered and crisis-prone. The population size and distribution area have shrunk, and many rare species are on the verge of becoming endangered and extinct.

Wild cherry plums are mostly distributed in floodplains with frequent human activities. In the past, there were vast stretches of pure cherry plum forests, but now they are basically gone. Due to the construction of temples and road construction in Miaoergou, many wild cherry plum trees were destroyed.

3. Due to overgrazing, the vegetation cannot be protected. The fixed number of livestock in Daxigou alone is nearly 10,000. In addition, the livestock herds passing through Daxigou every spring are temporarily set up in wild cherry plums. The distribution area is dotted with sheep and cattle farmers and herdsmen driving herds of cattle and sheep up the mountains. The cattle and sheep eat the seedlings, seriously destroying the understory vegetation of wild fruit forests, causing large-scale soil erosion, and exposing the root systems of many wild fruit trees. The growth potential of the entire wild fruit forest has declined.

4. Daxigou, Huocheng County, Xinjiang, China, has been developed into a tourist destination. Every year during the blooming and fruiting season of wild cherry plums, a large number of tourists go to the mountain to play, pick flowers and fruits at will, and litter with domestic garbage.

5. The phenomenon of predatory management is serious. During the fruit ripening season every year, a large number of people go to the mountains to collect fruits. During the collection, they beat them with sticks and sawed them with electric saws. They killed chickens to obtain their eggs and fished in dry lakes, leaving scars on the wild cherry plums.

Baidu Encyclopedia: Cherry Plum