Prunus fasciculata |
Prunus caroliniana |
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desert almond, desert peach, wild almond |
Carolina cherry laurel or laurel cherry, Carolina laurelcherry, laurier amande |
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Habit | Shrubs, suckering, much branched, 10–20(–30) dm, thorny. | Shrubs or trees, not suckering, 40–120 dm, not thorny. | ||||
Twigs | with axillary end buds, glabrous or canescent. |
with terminal end buds, glabrous. |
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Leaves | deciduous; sessile; blade oblanceolate to linear, 0.5–2 × 0.1–0.2(–0.4) cm, base long-attenuate, margins nearly entire or obscurely and remotely serrulate in distal 1/3, teeth blunt to sharp, sometimes glandular, apex rounded to acute, surfaces puberulent or glabrous or low-papillate (var. punctata). |
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. |
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Inflorescences | solitary flowers or 2-flowered fascicles. |
12–30-flowered, racemes; central axes 13–30(–43) mm, leafless at bases. |
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Pedicels | 0–4 mm, glabrous. |
1–4 mm, glabrous. |
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Flowers | unisexual, plants dioecious, blooming at leaf emergence; hypanthium campanulate, 1.5–3 mm, glabrous externally; sepals erect-spreading, triangular, 0.7–1 mm, margins entire, surfaces glabrous; petals white to yellowish, elliptic, obovate, or suborbiculate, 1.4–2.5(–4) mm; ovaries 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. |
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Drupes | gray to red-brown, ovoid, ± compressed, 7–15 mm, densely puberulent; hypanthium tardily deciduous; mesocarps leathery to dry; stones ovoid, ± flattened. |
black, ovoid, 9–12 mm, glabrous; mesocarps leathery; stones ovoid, not flattened, usually splitting open. |
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2n | = 32. |
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Prunus fasciculata |
Prunus caroliniana |
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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 |
AZ; CA; NV; UT; nw Mexico
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AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 370. | FNA vol. 9, p. 361. | ||||
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Amygdaleae > Prunus | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Emplectocladus fasciculatus | Padus caroliniana, Lauro-cerasus caroliniana | ||||
Name authority | (Torrey) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 10: 70. (1874) | (Miller) Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 163. (1789) | ||||
Web links |