Prunus padus
Prunus andersonii
bird cherry, European bird cherry, hackberry
desert almond, desert peach
with terminal end buds, glabrous or puberulent.
with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent.
deciduous;
petiole 8–17 mm, glabrous or puberulent on adaxial surface or both surfaces, glandular distally, glands 1–4;
blade elliptic to obovate, 5–10(–13) × 2.5–4.5(–7) cm, base obtuse to rounded or subcordate, margins serrate, teeth ascending to spreading, sharp, eglandular, apex acuminate to abruptly so, lateral veins 10–18 per side, raised abaxially, surfaces glabrous or abaxial hairy in vein axils or along midribs.
deciduous; ± sessile;
blade narrowly elliptic, obovate, oblanceolate, or spatulate, 1–3 × 0.2–0.6 cm, base long-attenuate, margins usually serrulate, sometimes obscurely, teeth blunt, inconspicuously glandular, apex usually acute, sometimes obtuse, surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent.
15–50-flowered, racemes;
central axes 45–150 mm, leafy at bases.
solitary flowers or 2-flowered fascicles.
3–17 mm, glabrous.
(1–)4–12 mm, glabrous.
blooming after leaf emergence;
hypanthium cupulate, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous externally;
sepals broadly spreading to reflexed, oblong-ovate, 1.2–2 mm (lengths greater than widths), margins glandular-toothed, surfaces glabrous;
petals white, obovate to suborbiculate, (5–)6–9 mm;
ovaries glabrous.
blooming at leaf emergence;
hypanthium campanulate, 3–4 mm, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent externally;
sepals spreading, triangular, 1.5–2.5 mm, margins sparsely glandular-toothed, ciliate, surfaces glabrate;
petals usually dark pink, sometimes nearly white, elliptic, obovate, or suborbiculate, (5–)8–11 mm;
ovaries hairy.
black, globose, 6–8 mm, glabrous;
hypanthium deciduous, leaving discs at bases of drupes;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones subglobose, not flattened, rugulose.
greenish yellow to red-orange, globose to asymmetrically obovoid, compressed, 10–18 mm, base cuneate-stipitate, apex mucronate, densely puberulent;
hypanthium persistent;
mesocarps leathery to dry (often splitting);
stones ellipsoid to subglobose, ± flattened.
= 32.
Prunus padus
Prunus andersonii
Prunus padus is cultivated in North America as an ornamental prized for its long, showy racemes of white flowers and its cold hardiness. Its value in the upper Midwest is often compromised by fungal infection causing black knot disease.
Prunus padus is difficult to distinguish from P. virginiana var. demissa, at least from herbarium material. Induments of hypanthium interior have been widely used in keys to separate the two: hairy in P. padus versus glabrous in P. virginiana. As noted by E. G. Voss (1972–1996, vol. 2), many of the specimens of P. virginiana have a pubescent hypanthium, especially basally. This is true throughout the range of P. virginiana, and also for some specimens of P. serotina. The hypanthia of P. padus are more hairy than those of P. virginiana. The petals of P. padus are longer than those of eastern chokecherry (P. virginiana var. virginiana), making it possible to distinguish flowering specimens from east of the Rocky Mountains. The petals are only slightly longer, on average, than those of P. virginiana var. demissa. Petals of P. padus are also a bit narrower and more elliptic. Shape of sepals may prove useful: 1.2–2 mm with lengths greater than widths in P. padus versus 0.7–1.4 mm with lengths equal to widths in P. virginiana var. demissa. In fruit, the difference between rugulose stones of P. padus and smooth stones of P. virginiana is subtle, perhaps too subtle for those unfamiliar with the range in variation of pit surfaces among these taxa.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Prunus andersonii inhabits the Great Basin Desert region of central and western Nevada, ranging westward into California to the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada from Modoc County south to Inyo County.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
WA
Flora NW
IL Wildflowers
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
