Red sweet glossy cherries glazing in glass jars or garnished atop a scoop of ice-cream, puddings and cakes can be home made. That too from sour tangy fruit of thorny carandas often grown as an ornamental plant. Bakery cherry is nothing but the sugar preserved fruit of caranda plant often dubbed as Indian cherry plant, Bengal currant, Christs thorn.
A member of Apocyanaceae family, this plant of Indian origin is popular in scientific world as Carissa carandas. Hardy and drought tolerant in nature, the woody thorny shrub grows to a height of 2-3 metres. The dense vigorously growing branches have dark oval glossy evergreen leaves and thorns on axils and nodes. The plant blooms during February-March and bears fruits during July-August. The ovoid to round fruits borne in clusters of 2-10 hanging down from branches in varied colour hues looks attractive.
Unripe fruits are white to green in colour and develop red/pink blush with....
