Prunus caroliniana
Prunus umbellata
Carolina cherry laurel or laurel cherry, Carolina laurelcherry, laurier amande
Alleghany plum, flatwood plum, hog or flatwoods or Allegheny plum, hog plum, sloe
with terminal end buds, glabrous.
with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy.
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 3–14 mm, hairy, usually eglandular, sometimes hairy only adaxially, glandular distally, glands 1–3, discoid;
blade usually elliptic to broadly elliptic, sometimes oblanceolate to obovate, 3.5–8 × 1.5–4 cm, base usually cuneate to obtuse, rarely rounded, margins finely, usually singly serrulate, sometimes doubly serrate, teeth sharp, usually eglandular, sometimes glandular, glands blackish, spheric, apex usually acute, sometimes short-acuminate, abaxial surface hairy to glabrate, adaxial glabrous.
12–30-flowered, racemes;
central axes 13–30(–43) mm, leafless at bases.
2–4(–6)-flowered, umbellate fascicles.
1–4 mm, glabrous.
5–22 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes 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 before or at leaf emergence;
hypanthium tubular (often tubular-urceolate when dried), 2–4 mm, glabrous or hairy externally;
sepals erect-spreading, ovate-oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm, margins usually entire, sometimes 2-fid at apices, ciliate, abaxial surface hairy or glabrous, adaxial hairy;
petals white, sometimes turning pink, obovate to suborbiculate, 3–8 mm;
ovaries glabrous.
black, ovoid, 9–12 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps leathery;
stones ovoid, not flattened, usually splitting open.
red, yellow, dark blue, or nearly black, glaucous, globose, 10–15 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones ovoid, slightly to ± flattened.
= 32.
Prunus caroliniana
Prunus umbellata
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.)
Traditionally treated as distinct species, Prunus alleghaniensis from the Appalachians and P. umbellata from southeastern United States are very similar; their ranges overlap in North Carolina and Tennessee. Similar plants disjunct in Michigan have been called P. alleghaniensis var. davisii. Morphological characters (petiole length, shape of blade along with its base and apex, degree of suckering) that have been used to separate these taxa vary as much within each taxon as among them. Since they can be separated only by geographic distribution, they are combined in this treatment.
Some specimens from Connecticut with hairy twigs, petioles, pedicels, and hypanthia were determined as Prunus alleghaniensis by Eames a century ago and do seem to fit within P. umbellata. Other Connecticut specimens determined as P. alleghaniensis (for example, Eames 121, MICH) with scattered glandular teeth on the sepals seem better placed in P. americana. The sole specimen known from Massachusetts (Pease 10,005, NEBC) has singly serrate leaves evenly tapered at both ends as in P. umbellata, but larger petals and reflexed sepals like those of P. americana.
In the southeastern United States, hairy forms have been called Prunus injucunda or P. mitis; the degree of indument on the twigs, petioles, leaf surfaces, pedicels, hypanthia, and sepals is subject to much trivial variation throughout the southeast, the Appalachians, and in Michigan.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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