Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word cherry derives from Old Northern French and Norman cherise, which came from the Latin cerasum. That Latin word referred to the ancient Greek region of Kerasous, near modern Giresun in Turkey, from which cherries were first thought to have been exported to Europe.
Cherries were introduced into England at Teynham, near Sittingbourne in Kent, by order of Henry VIII, who had tasted them during a visit to Flanders. The introduction happened during Henry VIII's reign.
Turkey was the world's top sweet cherry producer in 2020, growing nearly 725,000 tonnes and accounting for 28% of global output. Total world sweet cherry production that year was 2.61 million tonnes.
Cherry trees require a minimum number of chilling hours each winter to break dormancy and produce fruit. Most varieties need at least 800 hours of temperatures below 7 degrees Celsius, a cold requirement that no tropical climate can meet.
Cherry kernels, accessed by chewing or cracking the hard pit shell, contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide when ingested. Symptoms would typically appear only after consuming several crushed pits; swallowing whole pits normally causes no complications.
Sour cherries contain 50% more vitamin C per 100 grams than sweet cherries, reaching 12% of the daily value, and roughly twenty times more vitamin A, primarily as beta-carotene, at 8% of the daily value. Sweet cherries are 82% water with moderate fiber and vitamin C but little else above 10% of the daily value.