Within the rose family Rosaceae, it was traditionally placed as a subfamily, the
Amygdaloideae (incorrectly "Prunoideae"), but was sometimes placed in its own family, the Prunaceae (or Amygdalaceae). More recently,
Prunus is thought to have evolved from within a much larger clade now called subfamily Amygdaloideae (incorrectly "Spiraeoideae"). The earliest known fossil
Prunus specimens are wood, drupe, seed, and a leaf from the middle Eocene of the
Princeton Chert of British Columbia, Canada. Using the known age as calibration data, a partial
phylogeny of some of the Rosaceae from a number of
nucleotide sequences was reconstructed.
Prunus and its sister clade
Maloideae (apple subfamily) has been suggested to have diverged which is within the
Lutetian, or older middle
Eocene. Stockey and Wehr report: "The Eocene was a time of rapid evolution and diversification in
Angiosperm families such as the Rosaceae ...." The Princeton finds are among a large number of angiosperm fossils from the
Okanagan Highlands dating to the late early and middle Eocene.
Crataegus is found at three locations: the
McAbee Fossil Beds, British Columbia; the
Klondike Mountain Formation around
Republic, Washington, and the
Allenby Formation around
Princeton, British Columbia, while
Prunus is found at those locations plus the
Coldwater Beds of
Quilchena, British Columbia and
Chu Chua Formation around Chu Chua, British Columbia. A review of research on the
Eocene Okanagan Highlands reported that the Rosaceae were more diverse at higher altitudes. The Okanagan highlands formations date to as early as 52 mya, but the (approximate) 44.3 mya date might still apply. The authors state that "the McAbee flora records a diverse early middle Eocene angiosperm-dominated forest." Since then, the various genera of Linnaeus and others have become subgenera and sections, as all the species clearly are more closely related.
Liberty Hyde Bailey said: "The numerous forms grade into each other so imperceptibly and inextricably that the genus cannot be readily broken up into species."
Traditional classification Historical treatments break the genus into several different genera, but this segregation is not currently widely recognised other than at the subgeneric rank. The
ITIS recognises just the single genus
Prunus, with an open list of species, all of which are given at
List of Prunus species. One treatment of the subgenera derives from the work of
Alfred Rehder in 1940. Rehder hypothesized five subgenera:
Amygdalus, Prunus, Cerasus, Padus, and
Laurocerasus. To them C. Ingram added
Lithocerasus. The six subgenera are described as follows: • Subgenus
Amygdalus, almonds and peaches: axillary buds in threes (vegetative bud central, two flower buds to sides); flowers in early spring, sessile or nearly so, not on leafed shoots; fruit with a groove along one side; stone deeply grooved; type species:
Prunus amygdalus (almond) •
Subgenus Prunus, plums and apricots: axillary buds solitary; flowers in early spring stalked, not on leafed shoots; fruit with a groove along one side, stone rough; type species:
Prunus domestica (plum) •
Subgenus Cerasus, true cherries: axillary buds single; flowers in early spring in corymbs, long-stalked, not on leafed shoots; fruit not grooved, stone smooth; type species:
Prunus cerasus (sour cherry) •
Subgenus Lithocerasus, bush cherries: axillary buds in threes; flowers in early spring in corymbs, long-stalked, not on leafed shoots; fruit not grooved, stone smooth; type species:
Prunus pumila (sand cherry) •
Subgenus Padus, bird cherries: axillary buds single; flowers in late spring in racemes on leafy shoots, short-stalked; fruit not grooved, stone smooth; type species:
Prunus padus (European bird cherry), now known to be polyphyletic •
Subgenus Laurocerasus, cherry laurels: evergreen (all the other subgenera are deciduous); axillary buds single; flowers in early spring in racemes, not on leafed shoots, short-stalked; fruit not grooved, stone smooth; type species:
Prunus laurocerasus (European cherry-laurel)
Phylogenetic classification An extensive phylogenetic study based on different chloroplast and nuclear sequences divides
Prunus into three subgenera: •
Subg. Padus: In addition to species of
Padus (bird cherries), this subgenus also includes species of
Maddenia (false bird cherries),
Laurocerasus (cherry laurels) and
Pygeum. •
Subg. Cerasus: This subgenus includes true cherries such as
sweet cherry,
sour cherry,
mahaleb cherry and
Japanese flowering cherry. •
Subg. Prunus: This subgenus includes the following sections: •
Sect. Prunus: Old World plums •
Sect. Prunocerasus: New World plums •
Sect. Armeniaca: apricots •
Sect. Microcerasus: bush cherries •
Sect. Amygdalus: almonds •
Sect. Persica: peaches •
Sect. Emplectocladus: desert almonds
Species The lists below are incomplete, but include most more commonly cultivated species.
Afro-Eurasian species •
P. africana – African cherry •
P. amygdalus – almond •
P. apetala – clove cherry •
P. armeniaca – apricot •
P. avium – sweet cherry or wild cherry •
P. brigantina – Briançon apricot •
P. buergeriana – dog cherry •
P. campanulata – Taiwan cherry •
P. canescens – gray-leaf cherry •
P. cerasifera – cherry plum •
P. cerasoides – wild Himalayan cherry •
P. cerasus – sour cherry •
P. ceylanica – Ceylon cherry •
P. cocomilia – Italian plum •
P. cornuta – Himalayan bird cherry •
P. davidiana – David's peach •
P. darvasica – Darvaz plum •
P. domestica – common plum •
P. fruticosa – European dwarf cherry •
P. glandulosa – Chinese bush cherry •
P. grayana – Japanese bird cherry •
P. incana – willow-leaf cherry •
P. incisa – Fuji cherry •
P. jacquemontii – Afghan bush cherry •
P. japonica – Japanese bush cherry •
P. laurocerasus – cherry laurel •
P. lusitanica – Portugal laurel •
P. maackii – Manchurian cherry •
P. mahaleb – Mahaleb cherry •
P. mandshurica – Manchurian apricot •
P. maximowiczii – Korean cherry •
P. mume – Chinese plum •
P. nipponica – Japanese alpine cherry •
P. padus – bird cherry •
P. persica – peach •
P. pseudocerasus – Chinese sour cherry •
P. prostrata – mountain cherry •
P. salicina – Japanese plum •
P. sargentii – north Japanese hill cherry •
P. scoparia – mountain almond •
P. serrula – Tibetan cherry •
P. serrulata – Japanese cherry •
P. sibirica – Siberian apricot •
P. simonii – apricot plum •
P. speciosa – Oshima cherry •
P. spinosa – blackthorn, sloe •
P. ssiori – Hokkaido bird cherry •
P. subhirtella – winter-flowering cherry •
P. tenella – dwarf Russian almond •
P. tomentosa – Nanking cherry •
P. triloba – flowering plum •
P. turneriana – almondbark •
P. ursina – Bear's plum •
P. × yedoensis – Yoshino cherry •
P. zippeliana – big-leaf cherry (Chinese: 大叶桂樱)
Species found in the Americas •
P. alabamensis – Alabama cherry •
P. alleghaniensis – Allegheny plum •
P. americana – American plum •
P. andersonii – desert peach •
P. angustifolia – Chickasaw plum •
P. brasiliensis – Brazilian cherry •
P. buxifolia – chuwacá •
P. caroliniana – Carolina laurelcherry •
P. cortapico •
P. emarginata – bitter cherry •
P. eremophila – Mojave Desert plum •
P. fasciculata – wild almond •
P. fremontii – desert apricot •
P. geniculata – scrub plum •
P. gentryi – Gentry cherry •
P. gracilis – Oklahoma plum •
P. havardii – Havard's plum •
P. hortulana – Hortulan plum •
P. huantensis •
P. ilicifolia – hollyleaf cherry •
P. integrifolia •
P. maritima – beach plum •
P. mexicana – Mexican plum •
P. minutiflora – Texas almond •
P. murrayana – Murray's plum •
P. myrtifolia – West Indies cherry •
P. nigra – Canada plum •
P. occidentalis – western cherry laurel •
P. pensylvanica – pin cherry •
P. pleuradenia – Antilles cherry •
P. pumila – sand cherry •
P. rigida •
P. rivularis – creek plum •
P. serotina – black cherry •
P. subcordata – Klamath plum •
P. subcorymbosa •
P. texana – peachbush •
P. umbellata – flatwoods plum •
P. virginiana – chokecherry
Etymology The
Online Etymology Dictionary presents the customary derivations of plum and prune from Latin
prūnum, the plum fruit. The tree is
prūnus; and
Pliny uses
prūnus silvestris to mean the
blackthorn. The word is not native Latin, but is a loan from Greek προῦνον (), which is a variant of προῦμνον (), origin unknown. The tree is προύμνη (). Most dictionaries follow Hoffman,
Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Griechischen, in making some form of the word a loan from a pre-Greek language of
Asia Minor, related to
Phrygian. The first use of
Prunus as a genus name was by Carl Linnaeus in
Hortus Cliffortianus of 1737, which went on to become
Species Plantarum. == Pests and diseases ==