With a lot of thorns, the tree in question is more likely to be a hawthorn, Crataegus species, than it is a cherry. But they are both in the same family so do bear a strong resemblance, especially with the flowers.

There is a PNW native species, Crataegus douglasii, that seeds around rather freely, thanks to the birds but many hawthorns can hybridize readily so even a cultivated variety may cross with a native to produce seedlings. And English hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, has naturalized through a large part of western Washington and is on the non-regulated noxious weed list as a result (borderline invasive), much the same as English laurel and English holly.

You can keep it, thin it or remove it as you wish. Cutting it down is not wonderfully successful as hawthorns will sprout from stumps very easily. All hawthorns are quite attractive to wildlife so you might want to take that into consideration.

In a neglected border between our house and our neighbors

==>>> those thorns explain why its neglected.. lol ... if you decide to go at it ... get some thick leather gloves ...

when i did roses .. i actually had leather gauntlet gloves that went almost to the elbow ...

ken

https://www.google.com/search?q=rose+leather+gauntlet+gloves&biw=929&bih=743&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjA4rqTjcjLAhUiuIMKHTh_D5YQ_AUIBygC&dpr=0.9

Take a close up of a flower and a leaf.

Escaped callery pear, hawthorn, and some species of crab apple all have thorns.

Thanks for responding to my inquiry.

I do see a lot of small birds around these trees. Surrounding the trees were ivy, blackberries, holly bushes... basically every spiky thorny invasive plant that grow in the PNW. I only had rubber gloves that came up to my wrist, and now I have patches of broken skin all the way up to my elbow from taking out the blackberries that shot up to a height of 12 feet... Won't be doing that again.

I tried to take a closer photo of the leaves but -- Embothrium is right -- there are hardly any leaves yet. Here are some close up photos of the very few baby leaves that were forming around the flowers.

Cherry plum can be told from other plums at flowering time by the sepals behind the petals bending backward as the flowers age. If you go look at kinds of purple leaved plums now in flower (or going out of flower) - and yours is a cherry plum - most of these should look like yours except for having purple leaves and pink flowers. (Not all purple leaved plums are pure cherry plums, some involve other kinds also and are therefore somewhat different. However, purple leaved cherry plums dominate those kinds in local plantings that are or have been recently in bloom).

Prunus cerasifera is just flowering now in the UK (I always think of Seattle/Washington as being more or less the same as the west of england - Wales, Bristol, Shropshire, Lancashire (my home county).

This looks like our native Blackthorn or Prunus spinosa, it is sometimes used as a rootstock for plums, my guess is the grafted plum died and you are left with the freely suckering blackthorn. Does it fruit? should be 1/2 inch purple with whiteish bloom like little plums, very bitter, great for making sloe gin!

Denis

Many P. cerasifera are pretty much past here this week. Blackthorn is so rare in this area I've never seen it. And it doesn't look generally like a plum, it looks if anything like a sort of deciduous fire thorn when not in fruit.

Making sloe gin sounds decadent and alluring. However, I have never seen fruit on it.

I never get any fruit on my cherry plum either, I guess two trees are needed for pollination.

Sorry, yukoyd, no Sloe gin from this tree. I'm pretty sure it isn't P spinosa.

Always wondered what "sloe berries" were. Back in the early days, my band won some competition and we and the girls were in a celebratory mood on that Sunday night. Anything in the house to drink? Nothing, except a half-drunk bottle of sloe gin. We made due.

No, not spinosa - this was everywhere last month(February)...including all round my woods and those flowers are not blackthorn ...although on hearing of thorns, it was certainly my first assumption.

I pruned a tree like that last week and I stepped on thorns twice having to pull them from my shoe and foot. The branches are tough to deal with.

What's the difference between crataegus douglasii and malus angustifolia please? I found a similar tree on a school property and am getting conflicting IDs from different sources...

Other than being native to opposite ends of the country, the hawthorn has heavily toothed leaves and the white flowers are held in clusters.

I'm in North Atlanta, Georgia

The malus could be in your area as a native plant but it is highly unlikely the hawthorn is.....it is seldom intentionally planted even here where it IS native :-)

I do think you may be right, as the leaves aren't toothed... These looked like they were growing/seeded wildly in the area.. Hence the Hawthorne thought... I do think malus is correct as well. THANK YOU! :)

Carmel, if you're asking about the tree in your picture, that's a Malus. No question. It's not just the leaves, the flowers are also differently shaped and arranged.

And the scent too.

btw Hawthorn is the tree. Hawthorne, the author.

lol! Thanks!

Yes, "hawthorne" is used repeatedly for the tree but is never right. Even nurseries do it.

Douglas hawthorn ranges as far east as the Great Lakes area in nature.

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250100087

With a vogue for natives having been in effect in this area for some years the tree has been used in private and public plantings around and in Seattle, such as at Discovery Park.