Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus texana |
|
---|---|---|
Carolina cherry laurel or laurel cherry, Carolina laurelcherry, laurier amande |
peachbush, Texas wild peach |
|
Habit | Shrubs or trees, not suckering, 40–120 dm, not thorny. | Shrubs, sometimes suckering, much branched, 5–15 dm, sometimes weakly thorny. |
Twigs | with terminal end buds, glabrous. |
with axillary end buds, tomentose. |
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 1–4 mm, tomentose, eglandular; blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 1.1–4 × 0.4–1.1 cm, base cuneate to obtuse, margins dentate, teeth blunt, glandular, glands discoid, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded, abaxial surface hairy to canescent, adaxial hairy. |
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. |
1–5 mm, tomentose. |
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 or at leaf emergence; hypanthium campanulate, 2 mm, tomentose externally; sepals reflexed, triangular, 1–1.7 mm, margins glandular-toothed, surfaces tomentose; petals white, elliptic, 3–5 mm; ovaries hairy. |
Drupes | black, ovoid, 9–12 mm, glabrous; mesocarps leathery; stones ovoid, not flattened, usually splitting open. |
usually yellow to greenish yellow, sometimes tinged with red, ovoid, compressed, 8–15 mm, velutinous; hypanthium tardily deciduous; mesocarps fleshy; stones ovoid, ± flattened. |
2n | = 32. |
|
Prunus caroliniana |
Prunus texana |
|
Phenology | Flowering Feb–Apr; fruiting May–Nov. | Flowering Feb–Mar; fruiting Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | Stream bottoms, thickets, wooded uplands, maritime forests, naturalizing in urban woodlands | Deep sand, plains and sand hills, grasslands, oak woods |
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX
|
TX |
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.) |
Prunus texana is endemic to south-central Texas from the Edwards Plateau southeast to the coastal plain. Despite the peachlike fruits of Prunus texana, DNA evidence supports its placement among the native American plums (J. Shaw and R. L. Small 2005). The leaf margins look like those of no other North American species of Prunus. The teeth project perpendicular to the margins and are capped with disc-shaped glands. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 361. | FNA vol. 9, p. 377. |
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Padus caroliniana, Lauro-cerasus caroliniana | Amygdalus glandulosa |
Name authority | (Miller) Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 163. (1789) | D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 3: 45. (1842) — not Prunus glandulosa Thunberg 1784 |
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