Prunus pensylvanica
Prunus andersonii
bird cherry, cerisier de pennsylvanie, fire cherry, petit merisier, pin cherry, pin or bird or fire cherry
desert almond, desert peach
with terminal end buds, glabrous.
with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent.
deciduous;
petiole (7–)9–20 mm, glabrous, glandular distally, glands 1–3;
blade elliptic, oblong-lanceolate, or lanceolate, (2.5–)4.5–10(–14) × 1.5–5 cm, base cuneate to rounded, margins crenulate to crenate-serrate, teeth blunt, glandular, apex usually acuminate, sometimes acute (western specimens), surfaces glabrous.
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.
2–5(–8)-flowered, umbellate fascicles or corymbs;
central axes 0–8(–24) mm.
solitary flowers or 2-flowered fascicles.
(8–)10–30 mm (subtended by minute bracts), glabrous.
(1–)4–12 mm, glabrous.
blooming at leaf emergence;
hypanthium obconic, 1.8–3 mm, glabrous externally;
sepals reflexed, oblong, 1.2–2.8 mm, margins entire, surfaces glabrous;
petals white, elliptic, obovate, or suborbiculate, 4–7 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.
bright red, ellipsoid, 6–10 mm, glabrous;
mesocarps fleshy;
stones ellipsoid, not flattened.
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.
= 16.
Prunus pensylvanica
Prunus andersonii
Throughout most of its range, Prunus pensylvanica appears distinct from P. emarginata. The leaves of P. pensylvanica are generally larger and lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate rather than oblanceolate to elliptic; the leaf apices are usually acuminate (sometimes acute) versus rounded to obtuse (rarely acute) in P. emarginata. Inflorescences of P. pensylvanica are corymbose to umbellate with central axes shorter than pedicels; in P. emarginata the inflorescences are corymbose to racemose with central axes longer than pedicels. Where their ranges overlap in British Columbia and western Montana, intermediates are found with the corymbose inflorescence of P. emarginata and leaves more comfortably accommodated within the variation of P. pensylvanica. Some of these specimens have been identified as P. corymbulosa, based on a type from Montana, here included within P. pensylvanica.
Along the eastern slopes of the Rockies and throughout the northwestern Great Plains, Prunus pensylvanica is shrubby and has smaller leaves (less than 60 mm) than it does farther east. Compared to leaves of eastern plants, those of western specimens are also broader in proportion to their length (1.7–2.3:1 versus 2–4.3:1), have acute rather than acuminate apices, and tend to be more coarsely toothed. Although sometimes segregated as var. saximontana, or subsp. corymbulosa, when having a corymbose inflorescence, these plants fit within the variation in plant habit, leaf size, leaf shape, and margin serration seen throughout the broad range of P. pensylvanica.
(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
Go Botany
IL Wildflowers
MD Biodiversity
MI Flora
MN Wildflowers
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
