Prunus

Sour cherry Prunus cerasus, photographed by Martha Modzelevich.

Belongs within: Rosales.

Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs native to Eurasia and North America, though several species have become distributed elsewhere through human horticulture. Members of the genus are noted for their fleshy fruits with a central stone. A number of species are significant food plants, such as P. persica (peach), P. domestica (plum), P. avium (sweet cherry) and P. armeniaca (apricot), and these and other species are also grown as ornamentals. The almond Prunus dulcis differs from other cultivated species in that it is the kernel of the seed that is eaten, rather than the flesh of the fruit itself. Seeds of other species (as well as of varieties of almond not selected for raw consumption) are often toxic due to the presence of hydrocyanic acid. The wood of some species is also used for purposes such as furniture production.

Characters (from Gu & Bartholomew): Trees or shrubs, deciduous. Branchlets sometimes spine-tipped. Axillary winter bud solitary, ovoid; terminal winter bud absent. Stipules membranous, soon caducous. Leaves simple, alternate, convolute (or conduplicate) when young; petiolate or sessile; petiole apex or base of leaf blade margin with or without nectaries; leaf blade margin variously crenate or coarsely serrate. Inflorescences apparently axillary, solitary or to 3-flowered in a fascicle; bracts small, soon caducous. Flowers opening before or at same time as leaves. Hypanthium campanulate. Sepals 5, imbricate. Petals 5, white, sometimes purple-veined, rarely greenish, inserted on rim of hypanthium, imbricate. Stamens 20–30, in 2 whorls; filaments unequal. Carpel 1; ovary superior, 1-loculed, glabrous or sometimes villous; ovules 2, collateral, pendulous. Style terminal, elongated. Fruit a drupe, glabrous, often glaucous, usually with a longitudinal groove; mesocarp fleshy, not splitting when ripe; endocarp laterally compressed, smooth, rarely grooved or rugose.

<==Prunus [incl. Cerasus, Padus] H90
    |--P. africana E09
    |--P. americana B75
    |--P. amygdalus S00
    |--P. andersonii H93
    |--P. armeniaca R-CT01
    |--P. avium C55
    |--P. buergeriana LO98
    |--P. cerasifera EH03
    |--P. cerasoides MH98
    |--P. cerasus C55
    |--P. dolichobotrys [incl. Combretum flavo-virens Laut. 1912] C78
    |--P. domestica HH03
    |--P. dulcis H93
    |--P. emarginata H93
    |--P. fasciculata H93
    |    |--P. f. var. fasciculata H93
    |    `--P. f. var. punctata H93
    |--P. fremontii H93
    |--P. grayana [incl. P. ssiori] LO98
    |--P. ilicifolia RJ11
    |    |--P. i. ssp. ilicifolia H93
    |    `--P. i. ssp. lyonii H93
    |--P. insititia C55
    |--P. jamasakura [incl. P. pseudo-cerasus] LO98
    |--P. lannesiana MH98
    |--P. laurocerasus BS01
    |--P. lusitanica H93
    |--P. mahaleb H91
    |--P. martabanicus CMT07
    |--P. maximowiczii LO98
    |--P. mira O88
    |    |--P. m. ssp. mira O88
    |    `--P. m. ssp. nepalensis O88
    |--P. mume LO98
    |--P. myrtifolia J87
    |--P. occidentalis J87
    |--P. padus ZB01
    |--P. pendula LO98
    |    |--P. p. f. pendula LO98
    |    `--P. p. f. ascendens [incl. P. subhirtella] LO98
    |--P. persica F11 [=Amygdalus persica LO98]
    |    |--P. p. var. persica H90
    |    `--P. p. var. nectarina H90
    |--P. prostrata SL06
    |--P. salicina HF03
    |--P. serotina H03
    |--P. spinosa BH02
    |--P. subcordata H93
    |--P. virginiana P93
    |    |--P. v. var. virginiana H93
    |    `--P. v. var. demissa [incl. P. virginiana var. melanocarpa] H93
    `--P. yedoensis MH98

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

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[BH02] Bell, J. R., A. J. Haughton, N. D. Boatman & A. Wilcox. 2002. Do incremental increases of the herbicide glyphosate have indirect consequences for spider communities? Journal of Arachnology 30 (2): 288–297.

[B75] Bowles, J. B. 1975. Distribution and biogeography of mammals of Iowa. Special Publications, The Museum, Texas Tech University 9: 1–184.

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[CMT07] Chakrabarty, T., V. Maina & M. Tigga. 2007. Some unrecorded medicinal plants of the Jarawa tribe of Andaman Islands. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49: 233–234.

[C78] Coode, M. J. E. 1978. Combretaceae. In: Womersley, J. S. (ed.) Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea vol. 1 pp. 43–110. Melbourne University Press: Carlton South (Australia).

[E09] Ensermu K. 2009. Three new species of Acanthaceae from Ethiopia. Kew Bulletin 64 (1): 57–65.

[EH03] Eriksson, T., M. S. Hibbs, A. D. Yoder, C. F. Delwiche & M. J. Donoghue. 2003. The phylogeny of Rosoideae (Rosaceae) based on sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA and the trnL/F region of chloroplast DNA. International Journal of Plant Science 164 (2): 197–211.

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[HF03] Halperin, J., & J. Fremuth. 2003. Contribution to the knowledge of Curculionoidea (Coleoptera) and their host plants in Israel. Zoology in the Middle East 29: 93–100.

[H90] Harden, G. J. (ed.) 1990. Flora of New South Wales vol. 1. New South Wales University Press.

[H03] Healy, R. A. 2003. Mattirolomyces tiffanyae, a new truffle from Iowa, with ultrastructural evidence for its classification in the Pezizaceae. Mycologia 95 (4): 765–772.

[HH03] Hernández, J. R., & J. F. Hennen. 2003. Rust fungi causing galls, witches’ brooms, and other abnormal plant growths in northwestern Argentina. Mycologia 95 (4): 728–755.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[H91] Hubálek, Z. 1991. Biogeographic indication of natural foci of tick-borne infections. In: Dusbábek, F., & V. Bukva (eds) Modern Acarology: Proceedings of the VIII International Congress of Acarology, held in České Budĕjovice, Czechoslovakia, 6–11 August 1990 vol. 1 pp. 255–260. SPB Academic Publishing: The Hague.

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum—Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1–136.

[LO98] Lack, H. W., & H. Ohba. 1998. Die Xylothek des Chikusai Kato. Willdenowia 28: 263–276.

[MH98] Morikawa, H., A. Higaki, M. Nohno, M. Takahashi, M. Kamada, M. Nakata, G. Toyohara, Y. Okamura, K. Matsui, S. Kitani, K. Fujita, K. Irifune & N. Goshima. 1998. More than a 600-fold variation in nitrogen dioxide assimilation among 217 plant taxa. Plant, Cell and Environment 21: 180–190.

[O88] Ohba, H. 1988. The alpine flora of the Nepal Himalayas: an introductory note. In: Ohba, H., & S. B. Malla (eds) The Himalayan Plants vol. 1. The University Museum, University of Tokyo, Bulletin 31: 19–46.

[P93] Pittaway, A. R. 1993. The Hawkmoths of the Western Palaearctic. Harley Books: Colchester.

[R-CT01] Ragusa-di Chiara, S., & H. Tsolakis. 2001. Phytoseiid faunas of natural and agricultural ecosystems in Sicily. In: Halliday, R. B., D. E. Walter, H. C. Proctor, R. A. Norton & M. J. Colloff (eds) Acarology: Proceedings of the 10^th International Congress pp. 522–529. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.

[RJ11] Rising, J. D., A. Jaramillo, J. L. Copete, P. G. Ryan & S. C. Madge. 2011. Family Emberizidae (buntings and New World sparrows). In: Hoyo, J. del, A. Elliott & D. A. Christie (eds) Handbook of the Birds of the World vol. 16. Tanagers to New World Blackbirds pp. 428–683. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona.

[SL06] Schulz, H.-J., & P. Lymberakis. 2006. First contribution to the knowledge of the Collembola fauna of the White Mountains (Lefká Óri) in west Crete (Insecta, Collembola, Isotomidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica 86 (2): 229–234.

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[ZB01] Zhang, N., & M. Blackwell. 2001. Molecular phylogeny of dogwood anthracnose fungus (Discula destructiva) and the Diaporthales. Mycologia 93 (2): 355–365.

Last updated: 12 September 2020.