Abstract: ‘Qizao’is a very early ripening sweet cherry cultivar selected from seedling progeny of ‘Summit’. The trees have middle vigor，powerful budding force and middle branching ability. The fruits have widely cordate shape，deep red and bright skin and middle long fruit stem. The average fruit weight，soluble solids content and total acid content are 8.5 g，15.6% and 0.49%，separately. The fruit flesh is juicy and sweet. The cultivar is resistant to fruit cracking and high temperature in summer thus produces little malformed fruits. It is self-unfruitful with the S-genotype S1S9. Its fruiting stage is early. It has high fruit setting rate and high yield（13 188 kg ? hm-2）. The cultivar is suitable for sweet cherry producing areas in both southern and northern China. In Tai’an City of Shandong Province，the fruits mature in early May with the developing period about 40 days.

Key words: sweet cherry, very early ripening, cultivar