Cultivated sour cherries were selected from wild specimens of Prunus cerasus from around the Caspian and Black Seas, and were known to the Greeks in 300 BC.

The Morello cherry ripens in mid to late summer, toward the end of August in southern England.

Morello cherry trees fruit on younger wood than sweet varieties, and thus can be pruned harder.

Two implications of this are that seeds generally run true to the cultivar, and that much smaller pollinator populations are needed because pollen only has to be moved within individual flowers.

In areas where pollinators are scarce, growers find that stocking beehives in orchards improves yields.

[9] Dried sour cherries are used in cooking including soups, pork dishes, cakes, tarts, and pies.

In Iran, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, sour cherries are prized for making spoon sweets by slowly boiling pitted sour cherries and sugar; the syrup thereof is used for sharbat-e Albalou, vişne şurubu or vyssináda, a beverage made by diluting the syrup with ice-cold water.

A particular use of sour cherries is in the production of kriek lambic, a cherry-flavored variety of a naturally fermented beer made in Belgium.