Prunus angustifolia |
Prunus myrtifolia |
|
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Cherokee plum, Chickasaw plum, Chickasaw plume, Florida sand plum, sandhill plum |
West Indian cherry, West Indies or myrtle laurel cherry |
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Habit | Shrubs or trees, often suckering, 10–50 dm, thorny. | Trees, not suckering, 60–120 dm, not thorny. |
Twigs | with axillary end buds, glabrous. |
with terminal end buds, glabrous. |
Leaves | 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. |
persistent; petiole 8–16 mm, glabrous, eglandular; blade elliptic to broadly elliptic, 4–10 × 2–4.5(–6.5) cm, base cuneate, obtuse, or nearly rounded, margins undulate, entire, apex acute to acuminate, apicula obtuse, surfaces glabrous, abaxial glandular, glands 2, proximal, flat, circular to oval. |
Inflorescences | 2–4-flowered, umbellate fascicles. |
12–30-flowered, racemes; central axes (11–)20–50 mm, leafless at bases. |
Pedicels | 3–10 mm, glabrous. |
(2–)3–6 mm, glabrous. |
Flowers | 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. |
usually bisexual, proximal sometimes staminate, blooming before leaf emergence; hypanthium cupulate, 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous externally; sepals spreading, semicircular, 0.5–0.8 mm, margins usually entire, occassionally with a glandular tooth, surfaces glabrous; petals white, obovate to suborbiculate, 1.5 mm; ovaries glabrous. |
Drupes | red to yellow, lightly glaucous, globose to ellipsoid, 15–20 mm, glabrous; mesocarps fleshy; stones ovoid, ± flattened. |
purple-black, globose to ± ovoid, 8–12 mm, glabrous; mesocarps leathery; stones subglobose, not flattened. |
2n | = 16. |
|
Prunus angustifolia |
Prunus myrtifolia |
|
Phenology | Flowering Feb–Apr; fruiting May–Aug. | Flowering Nov–Jan; fruiting Mar–Jun. |
Habitat | Thickets, upland sandy soil, open woods, sand dunes, fence rows, pastures, roadsides, stream bottoms | Hammocks, pinelands |
Elevation | 0–600 m (0–2000 ft) | 0–10 m (0–0 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; CO; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NM; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
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FL; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies |
Discussion | 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.) |
Prunus myrtifolia, when compared with P. caroliniana, has flowers more widely spaced on longer rachises and pedicels, and flowers in the winter rather than the spring. The leaves of P. myrtifolia are broader on average, and their apices are blunt at the tip; the fruits are more rounded at the apices with smaller apicula. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 381. | FNA vol. 9, p. 361. |
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | P. angustifolia subsp. varians, P. angustifolia var. watsonii | Celastrus myrtifolius, Lauro-cerasus myrtifolia |
Name authority | Marshall: Arbust. Amer., 111. (1785) | (Linnaeus) Urban: Symb. Antill. 5: 93. (1904) |
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