Prunus caroliniana
Prunus speciosa
Carolina cherry laurel or laurel cherry, Carolina laurelcherry, laurier amande
Japanese flowering or oriental cherry
with terminal end buds, glabrous.
with terminal end buds, glabrous.
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 7–45 mm, glabrous, glandular, glands 2–4, discoid;
blade elliptic to obovate, 5–17 × 3–8 cm, base obtuse to rounded, margins singly to doubly serrate, teeth aristate, glandular, apex caudate, surfaces glabrous.
12–30-flowered, racemes;
central axes 13–30(–43) mm, leafless at bases.
(2–)3–5(–6)-flowered, corymbs;
central axes 5–25(–60) mm.
1–4 mm, glabrous.
10–40 mm (subtended by leafy bracts), glabrous or sparsely hairy.
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 at leaf emergence;
hypanthium tubular, 4–8 mm, glabrous externally;
sepals spreading to reflexed, oblong-ovate to lanceolate, 3–8 mm, margins entire or toothed, eglandular, surfaces glabrous;
petals white or pink, suborbiculate to oblong-obovate, 8–18 mm;
ovaries glabrous.
black, ovoid, 9–12 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps leathery;
stones ovoid, not flattened, usually splitting open.
black, globose, 10–13 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones ellipsoid, slightly flattened.
= 32.
= 16 (Japan).
Prunus caroliniana
Prunus speciosa
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.)
The name Prunus serrulata has been widely applied to P. speciosa by North American botanists and horticulturalists (for example, P. G. Russell 1934; A. J. Rehder 1940); some Japanese cherry experts now circumscribe P. serrulata more narrowly so that it includes only the white-petaled, double-flowered cultivars closely resembling the nomenclatural type. The single-flowered plants that are found escaping rarely and perhaps naturalizing in the flora area have been called P. lannesiana (Carrière) E. H. Wilson forma albida (Makino) E. H. Wilson or P. speciosa. Based on principal components analysis of 35 morphological characters from 468 individuals of the P. serrulata complex and related taxa, K. S. Chang et al. (2007) argued that forma albida is distinctive and separated from other taxa of the P. serrulata complex. H. Ohba (2001) recognized it at species rank as Cerasus speciosa (Koidzumi) H. Ohba. The classification and nomenclature of Japanese flowering cherries are complex, convoluted, and subject to varying interpretations, and no attempt is made to resolve them here. Centuries of selection and hybridization have blurred species distinctions, and it may be best to do as horticulturalists have and forsake botanical species names in favor of traditional and cultivar names. Whatever the name, these Japanese flowering cherries are widely grown as ornamentals where winters are not too cold nor summers too hot; they escape only rarely and have been found naturalizing only near planted specimens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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