Prunus cerasifera |
Prunus serotina |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
cherry plum, myrobalan, myrobalan plum, purple leaf plum |
black cherry, black chokecherry, cerisier tardif ou d'automne, merisier, rum cherry |
|||||||||
Habit | Trees, sometimes suckering, 40–80 dm, not or slightly thorny. | Shrubs or trees, not suckering, 40–400 dm, not thorny. | ||||||||
Twigs | with axillary end buds, glabrous. |
with terminal end buds, glabrous or hairy. |
||||||||
Leaves | deciduous; petiole 5–20 mm, glabrous except for a few hairs on adaxial surface, eglandular; blade ovate, elliptic, or obovate, 3–7 × 1.5–3.5 cm, base obtuse, margins singly to doubly crenate-serrate, teeth blunt, glandular, apex obtuse to acute, abaxial surface hairy along midribs and veins, adaxial glabrous. |
deciduous; petiole 2–23(–30) mm, glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy, usually glandular distally or at petiole-blade junction, glands 1–6; blade usually narrowly elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or obovate, sometimes lanceolate, rarely ovate, 2–13.5 × 1.1–6.5 cm, base cuneate to rounded, margins crenulate-serrulate to serrate, teeth incurved or appressed, sharp or blunt, glandular or callus-tipped, apex usually acute to acuminate, sometimes obtuse, rounded to emarginate in var. alabamensis, lateral veins 15–30 per side, flush abaxially, abaxial surface usually densely hairy along midribs proximally, sometimes glabrous or sparsely hairy, adaxial glabrous. |
||||||||
Inflorescences | usually solitary flowers, sometimes 2-flowered fascicles. |
18–55(–90)-flowered, racemes; central axes (25–)35–160 mm, leafy at bases. |
||||||||
Pedicels | (4–)10–18 mm, glabrous. |
1–10 mm, glabrous or hairy. |
||||||||
Flowers | blooming before leaf emergence; hypanthium campanulate, 2–4 mm, glabrous externally; sepals reflexed to spreading, oblong-ovate, 2–4 mm, margins glandular-toothed to nearly entire, eciliate, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial hairy at bases; petals white (reddish pink in cultivars), elliptic to suborbiculate, 7–14 mm; ovaries glabrous. |
blooming after leaf emergence; hypanthium cupulate, 1.5–3 mm, glabrous externally; sepals erect-spreading to reflexed, semicircular, 0.5–1.5 mm, margins usually entire, rarely glandular-toothed, rarely ciliate, surfaces glabrous; petals white, obovate to suborbiculate, 2–4 mm; ovaries glabrous. |
||||||||
Drupes | purple-red to yellow, sometimes glaucous, ovoid, ellipsoid, or globose, 15–30 mm, glabrous; mesocarps fleshy; stones ellipsoid to ovoid, ± to strongly flattened. |
dark purple to nearly black, globose, 5–10[–25] mm, glabrous; hypanthium persistent; mesocarps fleshy; stones subglobose, not flattened. |
||||||||
2n | = 16. |
|||||||||
Prunus cerasifera |
Prunus serotina |
|||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Feb–Apr; fruiting Jun–Aug. | |||||||||
Habitat | Roadsides, stream banks, canyons, chaparral | |||||||||
Elevation | 0–900 m (0–3000 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA; ID; MA; MD; NH; NY; OH; OR; PA; WA; BC; ON; se Europe [Introduced in North America]
|
AL; AR; AZ; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; BC; NB; NS; ON; QC; Mexico; Central America; South America [Introduced in Europe]
|
||||||||
Discussion | The purple-leaved, pink-flowered cultivars of Prunus cerasifera are especially popular for ornamental use. The earliest purple form was introduced into European gardens about 1880 by M. Pissard, gardener to the Shah of Iran. Prunus cerasifera is widely used as a rootstock for commercial plums. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 4 (3 in the flora). Variety capuli (Cavanilles) Hatusima [subsp. capuli (Cavanilles) McVaugh] is known from Mexico (Chiapas, Jalisco, Distrito Federal, México, Puebla), Central America, and South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela). It is distinguished from var. serotina by lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate leaves with decurrent bases (versus elliptic to obovate with obtuse to cuneate bases) and a long (to 2 cm), thin (1 mm) petiole; inflorescences tend to be subtended by 3 or 4 leaves [versus 2 (or 3), reduced in size], with a rachis relatively longer (greater than 15 cm), thicker, and flexuous compared to other varieties, and shorter pedicels (3–5 mm versus 5–10 mm, in var. serotina). The characters given in the key usually allow easy separation of Prunus serotina from P. virginiana; some specimens from Arizona and southern Utah are difficult to determine. In that area, it is not uncommon for the sepals of P. virginiana flowers to lack the glandular teeth that are common elsewhere and thus mimic those of P. serotina. Variety rufula has thicker leaves that are also much shinier on both surfaces than those of P. virginiana and shorter petioles (2–15 mm versus 4–27 mm). Compounding the confusion with chokecherry is a nomenclatural conundrum in which the epithet virginiana has been used for both chokecherry (the next species) and for black cherry (this species). The status of the two names Prunus serotina and P. virginiana was discussed by K. N. Gandhi et al. (2009), who proposed the conservation of both names. Of our native Prunus species only P. serotina grows large enough to produce commercial lumber, which is highly prized for its fine grain and rich, warm, reddish brown color. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 375. | FNA vol. 9, p. 363. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Name authority | Ehrhart: Gartenkalender 4: 192. (1784) | Ehrhart: Gartenkalender 3: 285. (1784) | ||||||||
Web links |
|
|