Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus fasciculata |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carolina cherry laurel or laurel cherry, Carolina laurelcherry, laurier amande |
desert almond, desert peach, wild almond |
|||||
Habit | Shrubs or trees, not suckering, 40–120 dm, not thorny. | Shrubs, suckering, much branched, 10–20(–30) dm, thorny. | ||||
Twigs | with terminal end buds, glabrous. |
with axillary end buds, glabrous or canescent. |
||||
Leaves | persistent; petiole 5–8 mm, glabrous, eglandular; blade narrowly elliptic to elliptic or oblanceolate, 5–10 × 1.5–4 cm, base cuneate to obtuse, margins entire or spinose-serrate, sometimes undulate, teeth sharp, eglandular, apex usually acute to short-acuminate, sometimes obtuse-apiculate, apicula acute, surfaces glabrous, abaxial glandular, glands 2, proximal, flat, circular to oval. |
deciduous; sessile; blade oblanceolate to linear, 0.5–2 × 0.1–0.2(–0.4) cm, base long-attenuate, margins nearly entire or obscurely and remotely serrulate in distal 1/3, teeth blunt to sharp, sometimes glandular, apex rounded to acute, surfaces puberulent or glabrous or low-papillate (var. punctata). |
||||
Inflorescences | 12–30-flowered, racemes; central axes 13–30(–43) mm, leafless at bases. |
solitary flowers or 2-flowered fascicles. |
||||
Pedicels | 1–4 mm, glabrous. |
0–4 mm, glabrous. |
||||
Flowers | usually bisexual, proximal sometimes staminate, blooming before leaf emergence; hypanthium cupulate, 2.5–3 mm, glabrous externally; sepals spreading, semicircular, 0.5–1 mm, margins usually entire, sometimes glandular-toothed, surfaces glabrous; petals white, suborbiculate to elliptic, 1–1.5 mm; ovaries glabrous. |
unisexual, plants dioecious, blooming at leaf emergence; hypanthium campanulate, 1.5–3 mm, glabrous externally; sepals erect-spreading, triangular, 0.7–1 mm, margins entire, surfaces glabrous; petals white to yellowish, elliptic, obovate, or suborbiculate, 1.4–2.5(–4) mm; ovaries hairy. |
||||
Drupes | black, ovoid, 9–12 mm, glabrous; mesocarps leathery; stones ovoid, not flattened, usually splitting open. |
gray to red-brown, ovoid, ± compressed, 7–15 mm, densely puberulent; hypanthium tardily deciduous; mesocarps leathery to dry; stones ovoid, ± flattened. |
||||
2n | = 32. |
|||||
Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus fasciculata |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering Feb–Apr; fruiting May–Nov. | |||||
Habitat | Stream bottoms, thickets, wooded uplands, maritime forests, naturalizing in urban woodlands | |||||
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX
|
AZ; CA; NV; UT; nw Mexico
|
||||
Discussion | Prunus caroliniana is a popular ornamental for screens and trimmed hedges and is widely planted in the southeastern United States because of its lustrous, dark green foliage persistent through the seasons. The species was probably common as a native plant on the southeastern barrier islands; most inland occurrences represent escapes from cultivation. It rarely escapes from cultivation in California. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 361. | FNA vol. 9, p. 370. | ||||
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Padus caroliniana, Lauro-cerasus caroliniana | Emplectocladus fasciculatus | ||||
Name authority | (Miller) Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 163. (1789) | (Torrey) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 10: 70. (1874) | ||||
Web links |