Prunus andersonii
Prunus umbellata
desert almond, desert peach
Alleghany plum, flatwood plum, hog or flatwoods or Allegheny plum, hog plum, sloe
with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent.
with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy.
deciduous; ± sessile;
blade narrowly elliptic, obovate, oblanceolate, or spatulate, 1–3 × 0.2–0.6 cm, base long-attenuate, margins usually serrulate, sometimes obscurely, teeth blunt, inconspicuously glandular, apex usually acute, sometimes obtuse, surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent.
deciduous;
petiole 3–14 mm, hairy, usually eglandular, sometimes hairy only adaxially, glandular distally, glands 1–3, discoid;
blade usually elliptic to broadly elliptic, sometimes oblanceolate to obovate, 3.5–8 × 1.5–4 cm, base usually cuneate to obtuse, rarely rounded, margins finely, usually singly serrulate, sometimes doubly serrate, teeth sharp, usually eglandular, sometimes glandular, glands blackish, spheric, apex usually acute, sometimes short-acuminate, abaxial surface hairy to glabrate, adaxial glabrous.
solitary flowers or 2-flowered fascicles.
2–4(–6)-flowered, umbellate fascicles.
(1–)4–12 mm, glabrous.
5–22 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy.
blooming at leaf emergence;
hypanthium campanulate, 3–4 mm, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent externally;
sepals spreading, triangular, 1.5–2.5 mm, margins sparsely glandular-toothed, ciliate, surfaces glabrate;
petals usually dark pink, sometimes nearly white, elliptic, obovate, or suborbiculate, (5–)8–11 mm;
ovaries hairy.
blooming before or at leaf emergence;
hypanthium tubular (often tubular-urceolate when dried), 2–4 mm, glabrous or hairy externally;
sepals erect-spreading, ovate-oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm, margins usually entire, sometimes 2-fid at apices, ciliate, abaxial surface hairy or glabrous, adaxial hairy;
petals white, sometimes turning pink, obovate to suborbiculate, 3–8 mm;
ovaries glabrous.
greenish yellow to red-orange, globose to asymmetrically obovoid, compressed, 10–18 mm, base cuneate-stipitate, apex mucronate, densely puberulent;
hypanthium persistent;
mesocarps leathery to dry (often splitting);
stones ellipsoid to subglobose, ± flattened.
red, yellow, dark blue, or nearly black, glaucous, globose, 10–15 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones ovoid, slightly to ± flattened.
Prunus andersonii
Prunus umbellata
Prunus andersonii inhabits the Great Basin Desert region of central and western Nevada, ranging westward into California to the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada from Modoc County south to Inyo County.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Traditionally treated as distinct species, Prunus alleghaniensis from the Appalachians and P. umbellata from southeastern United States are very similar; their ranges overlap in North Carolina and Tennessee. Similar plants disjunct in Michigan have been called P. alleghaniensis var. davisii. Morphological characters (petiole length, shape of blade along with its base and apex, degree of suckering) that have been used to separate these taxa vary as much within each taxon as among them. Since they can be separated only by geographic distribution, they are combined in this treatment.
Some specimens from Connecticut with hairy twigs, petioles, pedicels, and hypanthia were determined as Prunus alleghaniensis by Eames a century ago and do seem to fit within P. umbellata. Other Connecticut specimens determined as P. alleghaniensis (for example, Eames 121, MICH) with scattered glandular teeth on the sepals seem better placed in P. americana. The sole specimen known from Massachusetts (Pease 10,005, NEBC) has singly serrate leaves evenly tapered at both ends as in P. umbellata, but larger petals and reflexed sepals like those of P. americana.
In the southeastern United States, hairy forms have been called Prunus injucunda or P. mitis; the degree of indument on the twigs, petioles, leaf surfaces, pedicels, hypanthia, and sepals is subject to much trivial variation throughout the southeast, the Appalachians, and in Michigan.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
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USDA Plants Database
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MD Biodiversity
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