Tree Identification

Lynnecraige

Can anyone help to identify this tree?  It flowered in February, before any leaves were present.  Tightly packed clusters of white blossoms that appeared to grow along and very closely to the branches.  It now has masses of greenish red, conical shaped fruits growing along the branches.  The trunk has a twisted spiral appearance.

Lynnecraige

Does anyone know what tree this could be?

Silver surfer

Wrong shape fruit for sloe./blackthorn...Prunus spinosa.
Shape of fruit makes me think of a wild damson/bullace.
Suggest you wait to see what it is like when ripe and what the stone inside looks like.

Lynnecraige

Thank you so much for your response Silver surfer. It looks as though I'm going to need a few new recipes to use them all up.

Skandi

Could it be a lemon plum? Those conical fruits are very distinctive!

Silver surfer

Lynnecraige that is an old mature tree....where do you live?
Is it Britain?
Searching Lemon plum UK tells me nothing.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lemon+plum+uk
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skandi...fascinating the shape fits perfectly.
Not a plum that I have seen or heard about.
Found these links...

https://www.google.com/search?q=lemon+plum&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYtKmrt_zhAhU6SxUIHWpxBUkQ_AUIDygC&biw=1920&bih=944

https://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Lemon_Plums_4353.php

Lynnecraige

Skandi, I've never heard of a lemon plum until now, but not sure it would thrive in my country. 
Silver surfer, I live in the Chester, Cheshire and the tree is in our garden, but as we've only lived here for 6 months, I haven't got to grips with a lot of the trees/plants yet. I'm just enjoying photographing what's coming up and trying to identify them. There are still some unknowns but I'll have to wait until they develop a bit more.

Lynnecraige

Lynnecraige

More recent photos as the fruit develops.

Helix

This is fascinating....better than a crossword any day!  Brogdale doesn’t identify plums, I tried the national fruit collection database and couldn’t get a match.  http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/plum.php 

My current guess is a prunus mume, but flowers didn’t look as if they were in pairs

https://www.vdberk.co.uk/trees/prunus-mume/


But please keep posting pics and we’ll find it eventually.... and did the flowers smell of apricots?

Lynnecraige

Thanks for your response Helix. I didn't notice a smell from the blossom back in February, when it was in flower.  I presumed it was a blackthorn tree until I noticed that there were no spines or thorns and the flower buds seemed to grow directly from the stems/branches, with no leaves on the tree at all.  The fruits grow in tight clusters along the branches, just like the blossom did and are very small, hard and conical in shape. They have started to turn red with the sun. Inside the fruit, there appears to be a single pip or stone, which as the fruits are still not mature are easily broken in half.  I'll post a photo of the inside of the fruit.