Prunus angustifolia
Prunus mexicana
Cherokee plum, Chickasaw plum, Chickasaw plume, Florida sand plum, sandhill plum
bigtree plum, Mexican plum
with axillary end buds, glabrous.
with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy.
deciduous;
petiole 2–14 mm, usually sparsely hairy on adaxial surface, rarely glabrous or hairy on both surfaces, usually eglandular, sometimes glandular distally, glands 1–2;
blade lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, usually folded along midribs, often ± falcate, 1.5–6 × 0.8–2 cm, base cuneate to obtuse, margins crenulate-serrulate, teeth blunt, glandular, glands reddish orange, conic, apex acute, abaxial surface glabrate with hairs along midribs and major veins, adaxial glabrous.
deciduous;
petiole 4–18 mm, hairy, rarely only adaxially, usually glandular distally, glands 1–2(–4);
blade usually elliptic, sometimes broadly elliptic, obovate, ovate, or oblong, 6–12 × 3–7 cm, base usually obtuse to broadly rounded, sometimes subcordate, margins coarsely, doubly serrate, teeth sharp, eglandular, apex usually abruptly acuminate to acuminate, rarely acute, abaxial surface densely hairy, adaxial rugose, glabrous or hairy.
2–4-flowered, umbellate fascicles.
2–5-flowered, umbellate fascicles.
3–10 mm, glabrous.
4–20 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy.
blooming before, sometimes at, leaf emergence;
hypanthium campanulate, 1.5–3 mm, usually glabrous, rarely hairy, externally;
sepals erect to spreading, ovate, 1–2 mm, margins entire, sparsely ciliate, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial hairy;
petals white, suborbiculate to obovate, 3–6 mm;
ovaries glabrous.
blooming before leaf emergence;
hypanthium obconic, 2–4.5 mm, glabrous or hairy externally;
sepals reflexed, ovate to lanceolate, 1.5–4 mm, margins entire or irregularly or obscurely glandular-toothed, sometimes 2-fid at apices, ciliate, surfaces hairy;
petals white, sometimes turning pink, elliptic to obovate, 5–10 mm;
ovaries glabrous.
red to yellow, lightly glaucous, globose to ellipsoid, 15–20 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones ovoid, ± flattened.
purplish red to dark blue, glaucous, subglobose to ellipsoid, 15–30 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones ovoid-ellipsoid, strongly flattened.
= 16.
Prunus angustifolia
Prunus mexicana
A naturalized population of Prunus angustifolia in Santa Barbara County, California, has been extirpated.
Prunus angustifolia is one of the more distinctive plum species in North America. The leaves are relatively small, usually folded along their midribs, and have relatively large, reddish orange, conic glands along the margins. When it hybridizes with other plums, the hybrids often have distinctive characteristics and have been named as species more often than hybrids not involving P. angustifolia: P. ×orthosepala Koehne (angustifolia × americana), P. ×slavinii E. J. Palmer ex Rehder (angustifolia × gracilis), P. ×utahensis Koehne (angustifolia × pumila var. besseyi); see also discussion under 42. P. rivularis.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
As L. H. Shinners (1956b) pointed out, plums from Texas determined as Prunus americana var. lanata Sudworth are not P. americana but P. mexicana. This was extrapolated by others to mean that all hairy americana-type plums, which had been called var. lanata, are P. mexicana. As a consequence, P. mexicana is often listed from states far from where it truly occurs (for example, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin) and herbarium sheets of hairy P. americana can often be found filed under P. mexicana.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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