Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus mexicana |
|
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Carolina cherry laurel or laurel cherry, Carolina laurelcherry, laurier amande |
bigtree plum, Mexican plum |
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Habit | Shrubs or trees, not suckering, 40–120 dm, not thorny. | Trees, rarely suckering, 30–120 dm, sparsely thorny. |
Twigs | with terminal end buds, glabrous. |
with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy. |
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; 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. |
Inflorescences | 12–30-flowered, racemes; central axes 13–30(–43) mm, leafless at bases. |
2–5-flowered, umbellate fascicles. |
Pedicels | 1–4 mm, glabrous. |
4–20 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy. |
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. |
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. |
Drupes | black, ovoid, 9–12 mm, glabrous; mesocarps leathery; stones ovoid, not flattened, usually splitting open. |
purplish red to dark blue, glaucous, subglobose to ellipsoid, 15–30 mm, glabrous; mesocarps fleshy; stones ovoid-ellipsoid, strongly flattened. |
2n | = 32. |
|
Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus mexicana |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Apr; fruiting May–Nov. | Flowering Mar–Apr; fruiting Aug–Oct. |
Habitat | Stream bottoms, thickets, wooded uplands, maritime forests, naturalizing in urban woodlands | Stream bottoms, open woods, edges of woods |
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | 10–400 m (0–1300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX
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AL; AR; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MO; MS; OK; TN; TX; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas)
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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.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 361. | FNA vol. 9, p. 379. |
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Padus caroliniana, Lauro-cerasus caroliniana | |
Name authority | (Miller) Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 163. (1789) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 17: 353. (1882) |
Web links |