Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus pumila |
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Carolina cherry laurel or laurel cherry, Carolina laurelcherry, laurier amande |
cerisier des sables, dwarf sand plum, sand cherry |
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Habit | Shrubs or trees, not suckering, 40–120 dm, not thorny. | Shrubs, sometimes suckering, 1–15(–25) dm, not thorny. | ||||||||||||
Twigs | with terminal end buds, glabrous. |
with terminal end buds, glabrous or sparsely to densely puberulent (var. susquehanae). |
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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 2–10(–13) mm, glabrous or hairy only when young, sometimes glandular distally or on margins at bases of blades, glands 1–2; blade elliptic, oblanceolate, or obovate, 2.5–8 × 0.8–3 cm, base obtuse, cuneate, or long-attenuate, margins crenulate-serrulate to serrate in distal 1/2–2/3, teeth sharp or blunt, callus-tipped, sometimes glandular, apex short-acuminate to rounded, surfaces glabrous. |
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Inflorescences | 12–30-flowered, racemes; central axes 13–30(–43) mm, leafless at bases. |
2–5-flowered, umbellate fascicles. |
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Pedicels | 1–4 mm, glabrous. |
3–19 mm, glabrous. |
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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 campanulate, 1.7–3 mm, glabrous externally; sepals erect to reflexed, semicircular, 1.3–2.8 mm, margins glandular-toothed, surfaces glabrous; petals white, oblanceolate, oblong, or suborbiculate, 3–9 mm; ovaries glabrous. |
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Drupes | black, ovoid, 9–12 mm, glabrous; mesocarps leathery; stones ovoid, not flattened, usually splitting open. |
dark purple to nearly black, subglobose or broadly ellipsoid, 6–12 mm, glabrous; mesocarps fleshy; stones subglobose, ovoid, or fusiform, not flattened. |
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2n | = 32. |
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Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus pumila |
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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
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AR; CO; CT; DE; IA; IL; IN; KS; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SD; TN; UT; VA; VT; WI; WV; WY; MB; NB; ON; QC; SK
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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.) |
Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Opinion has varied as to whether Prunus pumila is best treated as one variable species (for example, H. Groh and H. A. Senn 1940; H. A. Gleason 1952; J. R. Rohrer 2000) or as two, three, or four separate species (for example, W. F. Wight 1915; M. L. Fernald 1923b; P. M. Catling et al. 1999). The plants vary in stem posture, twig indument, leaf shape, fruit size and taste, pit size and shape, and ecologic preference. Even though the morphologic characters show almost continuous variation, four varieties are recognized here based largely on differences in ecologic habitat and geographic range. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 361. | FNA vol. 9, p. 373. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Padus caroliniana, Lauro-cerasus caroliniana | |||||||||||||
Name authority | (Miller) Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 163. (1789) | Linnaeus: Mant. Pl. 1: 75. (1767) | ||||||||||||
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