Data Descriptor: A collection of European sweet cherry phenology data for assessing climate change Bénédicte Wenden 1 , José Antonio Campoy 1 , Julien Lecourt 2 , Gregorio López Ortega 3 , Michael Blanke 4 , Sanja Radičević 5 , Elisabeth Schüller 6 , Andreas Spornberger 6 , Danilo Christen 7 , Hugo Magein 8 , Daniela Giovannini 9 , Carlos Campillo 10 , Svetoslav Malchev 11 , José Miguel Peris 12 , Mekjell Meland 13 , Rolf Stehr 14 , Gérard Charlot 15 & José Quero-García 1 Professional and scientific networks built around the production of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) led to the collection of phenology data for a wide range of cultivars grown in experimental sites characterized by highly contrasted climatic conditions. We present a dataset of flowering and maturity dates, recorded each year for one tree when available, or the average of several trees for each cultivar, over a period of 37 years (1978–2015). Such a dataset is extremely valuable for characterizing the phenological response to climate change, and the plasticity of the different cultivars’ behaviour under different environmental conditions. In addition, this dataset will support the development of predictive models for sweet cherry phenology exploitable at the continental scale, and will help anticipate breeding strategies in order to maintain and improve sweet cherry production in Europe. Design Type(s) observation design • data integration objective Measurement Type(s) phenology Technology Type(s) visual observation method Factor Type(s) selectively maintained organism Sample Characteristic(s) Prunus avium • French Republic • Germany • Serbia • Kingdom of Spain • Switzerland • United Kingdom • Italy • Belgium • Bulgaria • Kingdom of Norway • Austria 1 UMR 1332 BFP, INRA, Univ. Bordeaux, Villenave d’Ornon 33140, France. 2 NIAB EMR, East Malling, ME19 6BJ, UK. 3 IMIDA, Murcia Institute of Agri-Food Research and Development, Murcia 30150, Spain. 4 INRES—- Horticultural Science, University of Bonn, 53121 Bonn, Germany. 5 Fruit Research Institute (FRI), Čačak 32000, Republic of Serbia. 6 University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Department of Crop Sciences, Division of Viticulture and Pomology, Vienna 1180, Austria. 7 Agroscope Changins—Wädenswil Research Station ACW, 1964 Conthey, Switzerland. 8 Walloon Agricultural Research Center (CRA-W), Gembloux 5030, Belgium. 9 CREA, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Fruit Tree Research Unit of Forlì, Forlì 47121, Italy. 10 Scientific and Technological Research Center of Extremadura (CICYTEX), Guadajira (Badajoz) 06187, Spain. 11 Fruit Growing Institute—Plovdiv, Plovdiv 4004, Bulgaria. 12 IRTA, Experimental Station of Lleida, Lleida 25003, Spain. 13 Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research—NIBIO Ullensvang, Lofthus N-5781, Norway. 14 Fruit Research Center Jork, Jork D-21635, Germany. 15 Ctifl, 751 chemin de Balandran, Bellegarde 30127, France. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to B.W. (email: benedicte.wenden@bordeaux. inra.fr). OPEN Received: 20 July 2016 Accepted: 18 October 2016 Published: 6 December 2016 www.nature.com/scientificdata SCIENTIFIC DATA | 3:160108 | DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2016.108 1