Prunus angustifolia
Prunus spinosa
Cherokee plum, Chickasaw plum, Chickasaw plume, Florida sand plum, sandhill plum
blackthorn, blackthorn plum, sloe, sloe cherry
with axillary end buds, glabrous.
with axillary end buds, 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 4–7 mm, hairy, eglandular;
blade elliptic to obovate, 1.5–4 × 1–2.2 cm, base obtuse to rounded, margins crenulate-serrulate, teeth blunt, often glandular, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface hairy (especially along midribs and veins), adaxial glabrate.
2–4-flowered, umbellate fascicles.
usually solitary flowers, sometimes 2-flowered fascicles.
3–10 mm, glabrous.
0.5–5(–8) mm, usually glabrous, rarely 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 cupulate, 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous externally;
sepals spreading, oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm, margins glandular-toothed, surfaces glabrous or adaxially hairy at bases;
petals white, elliptic, 4–8 mm;
ovaries glabrous.
red to yellow, lightly glaucous, globose to ellipsoid, 15–20 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones ovoid, ± flattened.
bluish black, globose, 10–15 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones subglobose, ± flattened.
= 16.
= 32.
Prunus angustifolia
Prunus spinosa
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 past flora writers (C. L. Hitchcock et al. 1955–1969; E. G. Voss 1972–1996) have noted, the distinctions between Prunus spinosa and P. domestica are not clear. Some researchers consider the hexaploid P. domestica to have been derived from the tetraploid P. spinosa, often in a scenario involving hybridization with P. cerasifera. It should not be surprising that some of the characters used in keys to separate these three taxa (spininess, indument, leaf size, pedicel length, numbers of flowers per bud) are subject to variation within each species and overlap among the species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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