Prunus maritima - (image 1 of 5)
Taxonomy
Family: Rosaceae
Habitat
Dunes and sandy soil near the coast, occasional in sandy barrens inland.
Associates
Distribution
ME to VA, mainly along the coast and occasionally inland; a report from central MI is apparently unconfirmed.
Morphology
Suckering shrub, 1-2.5 m, rarely arborescent and to 4 m; leaves firm, oblong or elliptic, 4-7 cm long and half as wide, obtuse or acute, broadly cuneate to obtuse at the base, finely serrate with broadly triangular to semicircular, abruptly acuminate teeth, rugose above, finely and somewhat roughly hairy beneath; pericels 5-10 mm, finely hairy; hypanthium pubescent; sepals oblong, 2.5 mm, finely hairy; petals obovate, 5-6 mm, cuneate at the base; fruit glaucous, purple-black to sometimes red or yellow, subglobose, 1.5 cm; stone turgid, truncate at the base.
Notes
Flowers May
Wetland indicator: NA
A single clone in CT with small (up to 40 mm long), subrotund leaves has been called P. gravesii and currently treated by many authors as P. maritima var. gravesii (Small) G.J. Anderson.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
USDA, NRCS. 2002. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).
National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
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Michael Hough © 2018 |