Urgh! What the hell is that in my cherry tree?

[EsmesRedPetticoat]

It looks like another tree has attached itself to my cherry tree. The brown branches at the top are the cherry and then there are these other branches at the bottom with green leaves on that don’t look quite right with all this weird bud stuff at the base of the branches near the bottom of the tree trunk.uts a bit freaky looking!

It looks like carrots 🥕

Disclaimer: I know nothing about trees 

Me neither. It looks like some sort of parasite tree!

Looks like a tree sucker. Trees that are under stress in some way will grow them in an effort to grow more branches. As if looks different to the rest of the tree it's likely that your cherry has been grafted (two varieties grown into one).

Ooh weird. It’s in a lot so the pot may be too small for it.

Is my tree doomed?

No, not at all - bigger pot or put it in the ground and it'll stop trying to spread the sucker way.

Looks to me like your cherry tree is possibly a graft, i.e the top half of the tree (the blossoming/fruiting part) is a different tree, grafted onto a root & stem of a different cherry species (which might have a stronger root habit/shorter trunk etc than the ornamental or sweet cherry top 'half').
If it is stressed in the pot, then the rootstock might start to grow as well to try to save itself?
The leaves still look like cherry, albeit different from the top grafted variety.
I'd pot it out if you can?

Short version - what InProgress said

Thank you wise gardeners of mumsnet!
I will be re-potting it as soon as I can then. It can’t go in the ground as we don’t have any at our current house but hoping for a proper garden when we move house in a couple of years.