The cherry plum, or myrobalan, is the small, round, early-ripening fruit of Prunus cerasifera — a cherry-sized wild plum, barely 2–3 cm across, that colours from green through yellow to bright red or near-purple. It is one of the parent species of the domestic plum and, in the Caucasus, the tart backbone of Georgian tkemali sauce. Used hard and green for cooking and pickling and eaten sweet-tart when soft, it is known in Russian and Central Asian kitchens as alycha.