Prunus laurocerasus

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Prunus laurocerasus
Karayemis-8.jpg
Foliage and flowers
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Prunus
Species:
P. laurocerasus
Binomial name
Prunus laurocerasus
L.
Synonyms [1]
List
    • Cerasus laurocerasus(L.) Dum.Cours.
    • Cerasus laurocerasus(L.) Loisel.
    • Laurocerasus officinalisM.Roem.
    • Laurocerasus otiniiCarrière
    • Laurocerasus vulgarisCarrière
    • Padus laurocerasus(L.) Mill.
    • Prunus grandifoliaSalisb.

Prunus laurocerasus, also known as cherry laurel, common laurel and sometimes English laurel in North America, is an evergreen species of cherry ( Prunus ), native to regions bordering the Black Sea in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe, from Albania and Bulgaria east through Turkey to the Caucasus Mountains and northern Iran. [2] [3]

Contents

The common names of P. laurocerasus refer to the similarity of foliage and appearance to bay laurel (Laurus nobilis, the true laurel, in the family Lauraceae), and like the bay laurel, Prunus laurocerasus was used for making laurel wreaths, [4] but the two plants are not closely related. It is not to be confused with its American relative Prunus caroliniana , which is also called cherry laurel.

Description

Prunus laurocerasus is an evergreen shrub or small to medium-sized tree, growing to 5 to 15 metres (16 to 49 ft) tall, rarely to 18 metres (59 ft), with a trunk up to 60 cm broad. The leaves are dark green, leathery, shiny, (5–)10–25(–30) cm long and 4–10 cm broad, with a finely serrated margin. The leaves can have the scent of almonds when crushed. The flower buds appear in early spring and open in early summer in erect 7–15 cm racemes of 30–40 flowers, each flower 1 cm across, with five creamy-white petals and numerous yellowish stamens with a sweet smell. The fruit is a small cherry 1–2 cm broad, turning black when ripe in early autumn. [5] [6]

Cultivation

Flowers - Prunus laurocerasus Lorbeerkirschblueten.jpg
Flowers - Prunus laurocerasus

Prunus laurocerasus is a widely cultivated ornamental plant, used for planting in gardens and parks in temperate regions worldwide. It is often used for hedges, as a screening plant, and as a massed landscape plant. Most cultivars are tough shrubs that can cope with difficult growing conditions, including shaded and dry conditions, and which respond well to pruning.[ citation needed ]

Cultivars

Over 40 cultivars have been selected, including [7]

The cultivar 'Otto Luyken' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [10]

Leaves - Prunus laurocerasus Karayemis-2.JPG
Leaves - Prunus laurocerasus

Invasive species

It has become naturalised widely. In some regions (such as the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Pacific Northwest of North America), this species can be an invasive plant. [11] [12] Its rapid growth, coupled with its evergreen habit and its tolerance of drought and shade, often allow it to out-compete and kill off native plant species. It is spread by birds, through the seeds in their droppings.[ citation needed ]

Habitat

The species is found in woods and in shrubbery places as an escape in Northern Ireland [13] and commonly planted in parks and gardens. [14]

The species that are mainly found in Turkey's Eastern Black Sea Region (mainly Trabzon and Giresun) are categorized as endemic plants. [15] [16]

Other uses

The foliage is also used for cut greenery in floristry.

Prunus laurocerasus fruits. Prunus laurocerasus macrophylla.jpg
Prunus laurocerasus fruits.

The fruits are astringent but edible. [17] They contain small amounts of hydrogen cyanide; any fruit tasting bitter (which indicates larger concentrations of hydrogen cyanide) should not be eaten. [18] The seed inside the fruit (and the leaves) contain larger concentrations of hydrogen cyanide, and should never be eaten. The toxicity of the seed inside the fruit is similar to the cyanide toxicity of the seeds inside the common fruits apricot and peach. [19]

Toxicity

Leaves and seed may cause severe discomfort, and death, to humans if ingested. [20] Historically, it was used for execution and political assassination in the Roman empire (e.g. Nero). [21] The seeds contained within the cherries are poisonous like the rest of the plant, containing cyanogenic glycosides and amygdalin. [22] This chemical composition is what gives the smell of almonds when the leaves are crushed. Laurel water, a distillation made from the plant, contains prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) and other compounds and is toxic.[ citation needed ]

Wood

Cherry laurel wood contains a lot of water. It tends to gum up blades while cutting. It tends to split and distort while drying.[ citation needed ]

The freshly cut wood is creamy white and smells of almonds, It turns to orange and brown when dried.[ citation needed ]

Sections that are large enough in diameter may be used to turn bowls.[ citation needed ]

Similar species

Prunus lusitanica , Portuguese laurel, is similar in appearance, but may be distinguished by its sharply toothed leaves and red petioles. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherry</span> Fruit of some plants of the genus Prunus

A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe.

<i>Prunus</i> Genus of trees and shrubs

Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs in the flowering plant family Rosaceae that includes plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Asia and Africa, There are 340 accepted species. Many members of the genus are widely cultivated for their fruit and for decorative purposes. Prunus fruit are drupes, or stone fruits. The fleshy mesocarp surrounding the endocarp is edible while the endocarp itself forms a hard, inedible shell called the pyrena. This shell encloses the seed, which is edible in some species, but poisonous in many others. Besides being eaten off the hand, most Prunus fruit are also commonly used in processing, such as jam production, canning, drying, and the seeds for roasting.

<i>Laurus nobilis</i> Species of flowering plant in the laurel family Lauraceae

Laurus nobilis is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking. Its common names include bay tree, bay laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, Grecian laurel, or simply laurel. Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture.

<i>Passiflora caerulea</i> Species of flowering plant in the passion flower family Passifloraceae

Passiflora caerulea, the blue passionflower, bluecrown passionflower or common passion flower, is a species of flowering plant native to South America. It has been introduced elsewhere. It is a vigorous, deciduous or semi-evergreen tendril vine growing to 10 m (33 ft) or more. Its leaves are palmate, and its fragrant flowers are blue-white with a prominent fringe of coronal filaments in bands of blue, white, yellow, and brown. The ovoid orange fruit, growing to 6 cm (2 in), is edible, but is variously described as having a bland, undesirable, or insipid taste. In South America, the plant is known for its medicinal properties, and is used by both the Toba and the Maka peoples.

<i>Prunus cerasifera</i> Species of plum

Prunus cerasifera is a species of plum known by the common names cherry plum and myrobalan plum. It is native to Southeast Europe and Western Asia, and is naturalised in the British Isles and scattered locations in North America. Also naturalized in parts of SE Australia where it is considered to be a mildly invasive weed of bushland near urban centers. P. cerasifera is believed to one of the parents of the Cultivated Plum, Prunus domestica perhaps crossing with the sloe, Prunus spinosa, or perhaps the sole parent. This would make it a parent of most of the commercial varieties of plum in the UK and mainland Europe - Victoria, greengages, bullace etc.

<i>Prunus serrulata</i> Species of tree

Prunus serrulata or Japanese cherry is a species of cherry tree that grows naturally in Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam, and it also refers to a cultivar produced from Prunus speciosa, a cherry tree endemic in Japan. Historically, the Japanese have developed many cultivars by selective breeding of cherry trees, which are produced by the complicated crossing of several wild species, and they are used for ornamental purposes all over the world. Of these, the cultivars produced by complex interspecific hybrids based on the Oshima cherry are also known as the Cerasus Sato-zakura Group.

<i>Prunus serotina</i> Species of tree

Prunus serotina Ehrh., commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub in the rose family Rosaceae. Despite being called black cherry, it is not very closely related to the commonly cultivated cherries such as sweet cherry, sour cherry and Japanese flowering cherries which belong to Prunus subg. Cerasus. Instead, P. serotina belongs to Prunus subg. Padus, a subgenus also including Eurasian bird cherry and chokecherry. The species is widespread and common in North America and South America.

<i>Ilex aquifolium</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Aquifoliaceae

Ilex aquifolium, the holly, common holly, English holly, European holly, or occasionally Christmas holly, is a species of flowering plant in the family Aquifoliaceae, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia. It is regarded as the type species of the genus Ilex, which by association is also called "holly". It is an evergreen tree or shrub found, for example, in shady areas of forests of oak and in beech hedges. In the British Isles it is one of very few native hardwood evergreen trees. It has a great capacity to adapt to different conditions and is a pioneer species that repopulates the margins of forests or clearcuts.

<i>Viburnum tinus</i> Species of flowering plant

Viburnum tinus, the laurustinus, laurustine or laurestine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae, native to the Mediterranean area of Europe and North Africa. Laurus signifies the leaves' similarities to bay laurel.

<i>Prunus ilicifolia</i> Species of tree

Prunus ilicifolia is native to the chaparral areas of coastal California, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. as well as the desert chaparral areas of the Mojave desert.

<i>Prunus lusitanica</i> Species of flowering plant

Prunus lusitanica, the Portuguese laurel cherry or Portugal laurel, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, the Macaronesian archipelagos, and the French Basque Country.

<i>Prunus mahaleb</i> Species of cherry tree

Prunus mahaleb, the mahaleb cherry or St Lucie cherry, is a species of cherry tree. The tree is cultivated for a spice obtained from the seeds inside the cherry stones. The seeds have a fragrant smell and have a taste comparable to bitter almonds with cherry notes.

<i>Prunus speciosa</i> Species of tree

Prunus speciosa, the Oshima cherry, Japanese オオシマザクラ, is native to Izu Ōshima island and the Izu Peninsula on Honshū near Tokyo, Japan.

<i>Prunus tomentosa</i> Species of tree

Prunus tomentosa is a species of Prunus native to northern and western China, Korea, Mongolia, and possibly northern India. Common names for Prunus tomentosa include Nanjing cherry, Korean cherry, Manchu cherry, downy cherry, Shanghai cherry, Ando cherry, mountain cherry, Chinese bush cherry, and Chinese dwarf cherry.

<i>Prunus avium</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya. The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.

<i>Prunus caroliniana</i> Species of tree

Prunus caroliniana, known as the Carolina laurelcherry, Carolina cherry laurel, Carolina cherry, or Cherry laurel, is a small evergreen flowering tree native to the lowlands of Southeastern United States, from North Carolina south to Florida and westward to central Texas. The species also has escaped into the wild in a few places in California.

<i>Prunus ursina</i> Species of plant

Prunus ursina is a species of prunus native to the woods of Western Asia from Turkey to Syria, Israel and Lebanon. Some sources include this species in Prunus cocomilia.

<i>Prunus microcarpa</i> Species of plant

Prunus microcarpa, the small-fruited cherry, is a species of Prunus native to Western Asia and the Caucasus.

References

  1. ↑ "Prunus laurocerasus L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  2. ↑ Euro+Med Plantbase Project: Prunus laurocerasus Archived 2012-03-09 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ "Prunus laurocerasus". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  4. ↑ Mabberley, D.J. (2008). The plant book: A portable dictionary of the vascular plants (entry for Laurus). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521820714.
  5. ↑ Rushforth, K. (1999). Trees of Britain and Europe. Collins ISBN   0-00-220013-9.
  6. ↑ Flora of NW Europe: Prunus laurocerasus Archived 2008-05-14 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan ISBN   0-333-47494-5.
  8. ↑ "Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' - Plant Finder".
  9. ↑ "North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox".
  10. ↑ "RHS Plant Selector - Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken'" . Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  11. ↑ Evergreen.ca Invasive Plant Profile
  12. ↑ Weeds of the Blue Mountains
  13. ↑ Beesley, S. and Wilde, J. 1997 Urban Flora of Belfast. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast. ISBN   0-85389-695X
  14. ↑ Hackney, P. (Ed) Stewart & Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast.
  15. ↑ Anşin, R., Özkan, Z. C., 1993. Tohumlu Bitkiler (Spermatophyta) odunsu taksonlar KTÜ Orman Fak Yayınları.
  16. ↑ Sandallı, C. 2002. Karayemiş (Laurocerasus officinalis Roem.) bitkisinin RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA) tekniği ile moleküler karakterizasyonu, KTÜ Fen- Edb Fakültesi
  17. ↑ "English_laurel_prunus_laurocerasus". Archived from the original on 2018-08-24. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  18. ↑ "Prunus laurocerasus Cherry Laurel, English Laurel PFAF Plant Database".
  19. ↑ Eisler, Ronald (2000-04-12). Handbook of Chemical Risk Assessment: Health Hazards to Humans, Plants, and Animals, Three Volume Set. CRC Press. ISBN   9781420032741.
  20. ↑ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN   978-1405332965.
  21. ↑ Smith S. Poisons and poisoners through the ages. Med Leg J. 1952;20:153–167.
  22. ↑ "Poisonous Plants: Prunus Laurocerasus". Archived from the original on 2007-04-19. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
  23. ↑ Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012 Webb's An Irish Flora. ISBN   978-185918-4783
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