Cherry Plum
Scientific name: Prunus cerasifera Ehrh.
Diagnostic features
Deciduous, sometimes spiny shrub or tree to 8(12)m.
Leaves 3-7cm, ovate to obovate, glabrous, green or purplish.
Flowers appearing with or before leaves, the earliest in the genus, 1-2(3).
Petals white (or pink in cultivars).
Fruit ± globose, 2-3cm, dark red or yellow, scarcely bloomed, with little-flattened stone.
Chromosome number: (2n=16).
Habitat
Introduced-naturalized; common in hedges and as street-tree, planted for hedging and ornament (mostly purplish-leaved: white- to very pale pink-flowered var. pissardii (Carrière) L.H. Bailey (Prunus 'Atropurpurea'), or pink-flowered Prunus 'Nigra'), spreading by suckers and often used as stock for other Prunus cultivars, not commonly fruiting.
Distribution
Channel Islands and Britain North to Central Scotland; Southeast Europe and Southwest Asia.
This species is keyed out on Page 2325 in the Text Key. |
