Rosaceae, the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera.
Amygdaloideae is a subfamily within the flowering plant family Rosaceae. It was formerly considered by some authors to be separate from Rosaceae, and the family names Prunaceae and Amygdalaceae have been used. Reanalysis from 2007 has shown that the previous definition of subfamily Spiraeoideae was paraphyletic. To solve this problem, a larger subfamily was defined that includes the former Amygdaloideae, Spiraeoideae, and Maloideae. This subfamily, however, is to be called Amygdaloideae rather than Spiraeoideae under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants as updated in 2011.
A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe.
Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds.
Prunus subg. Padus is a subgenus of Prunus, characterised by having racemose inflorescences. Padus was originally a distinct genus, but genetic and morphological studies have shown that Padus is polyphyletic. It has been proposed that all the racemose taxa within Prunus are incorporated into a broad-sense Prunus subg. Padus.
Prunus serotina, commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the genus Prunus. 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.
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.
Prunus × yedoensis is a hybrid cherry tree between Prunus speciosa as father plant and Prunus pendula f. ascendens as mother. It is a hybrid born in Japan and one of its cultivars, Prunus × yedoensis 'Somei-yoshino' or Yoshino cherry, is one of the most popular and widely planted cherry cultivars in temperate regions around the world today. 'Somei-yoshino' is a clone from a single tree, and has been propagated by grafting all over the world. 'Somei-yoshino' inherits Edo higan's quality of blooming before the leaves unfold and it growing into a large-sized tree. It also inherits the characteristics of the Oshima cherry, which grows rapidly and has white flowers. These characteristics are favored and have become one of the most popular cultivars of cherry trees.
Prunus maackii, commonly called the Manchurian cherry or Amur chokecherry, is a species of cherry native to Korea and both banks of the Amur River, in Manchuria in northeastern China, and Amur Oblast and Primorye in southeastern Russia. It used to be considered a species of Prunus subg. Padus, but both morphological and molecular studies indicate it belongs to Prunus subg. Cerasus.
Prunus fruticosa, the European dwarf cherry, dwarf cherry, Mongolian cherry or steppe cherry is a deciduous, xerophytic, winter-hardy, cherry-bearing shrub. It is also called ground cherry and European ground cherry, but is not to be confused with plants in the distinct "Groundcherry" genus of Physalis.
Prunus tenella, the dwarf Russian almond, is a species of deciduous shrub in the genus Prunus, native to steppes of Eastern Europe and Western Siberia, as well as dry open sites of Caucasus, Western and Central Asia.
Prunus sect. Prunocerasus is a section of the genus Prunus. Koehne originally described it as comprising the North American plums and placed it in the subgenus Cerasus. The section is now generally recognized as belonging to Prunus subg. Prunus.
Prunus subg. Prunus is a subgenus of Prunus. This subgenus includes plums, apricots and bush cherries. Some species conventionally included in Prunus subg. Amygdalus are clustered with plum/apricot species according to molecular phylogenetic studies. Shi et al. (2013) has incorporated subg. Amygdalus into subg. Prunus, thereby including almonds and peaches in this subgenus. The species in this subgenus have solitary flowers or 2–3 in a fascicle.
Prunus × nudiflora is a Korean native cherry tree originating from Jeju Island. It is a distinct species from Japanese native Yoshino cherry. King cherry is a rare plant and listed as an endangered species. As of April 2017, 194 king cherry trees were growing around Mt. Halla in Jeju Island. According to Gen-ichi Koidzumi, king cherry is erroneously believed to be discovered by a French missionary Émile Joseph Taquet although what he discovered was a different species.
Prunus tianshanica, the Tianshan cherry, is a species of cherry native to the Tianshan Mountains of Central Asia, preferring to grow at 800-1000 m.
Prunus brachypetala is a species of bush cherry native to Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Its fruit are edible and consumed locally.
Prunus eburnea is a species of wild almond native to Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is a dense shrub 0.2 to 1.2 m tall with gray bark. It is morphologically similar to Prunus lycioides, P. spinosissima, P. erioclada and P. brahuica. It can be distinguished from the similar species by having a pubescent hypanthium. A genetic and morphological analysis shows that it is a good species, with its closest relative being Prunus erioclada. The cross of Prunus scoparia and Prunus eburnea produces Prunus × iranshahrii.
Prunus argentea, sometimes called the silver almond, is a species of wild almond found in the Levant, Turkey, Iraq and western Iran. It is a thorny shrub 0.5 to 3 m tall, with rough gray or brown bark. Its leaves are silvery white due to a covering of pubescent hairs. The leaves have a 1-5 mm petiole and the leaf blades are 10 to 44 mm long and 10 to 23 mm wide. Its inflorescences have red hypanthia and sepals, and pale pink or pink petals. The flowers are borne on a pedicel about 1 to 3 mm long, which lengthens to 2 to 7 mm when the fruit is fully developed. It is found growing in a variety of habitats; open oak woodlands, rocky slopes, dry silted areas, and steep banks of streams, at 500 to 2000 m above sea level. A genetic study showed that its closest relative is probably Prunus haussknechtii.
Prunus subg. Cerasus is a subgenus of Prunus. Species of the subgenus have a single winter bud per axil. The flowers are usually in small corymbs or umbels of several together, but some species have short racemes. The fruit is a drupe and has no obvious groove along the side. The subgenus is native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with two species in North America, four in Europe, two in North Africa, and the remainder in Asia.
Prunus sect. Prunus is a section of Prunus subg. Prunus. It contains species of Eurasian plum.
