Prunus fruticosa
Encyclopedia
Prunus fruticosa, the European dwarf cherry, or 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 fruticosa is native to Ciscaucasia
, western Siberia
, Kazakhstan
, Xinjiang
China, western Russia
, Ukraine
], Poland
, Czech Republic
, Germany
, Belarus
, Moldova
, Bulgaria
, Romania
, Hungary
, Austria
, and Italy
.
s. Roots are abundant. The plant requires full sun, it is a steppe
rather than a forest
plant, although it does form thickets at the edges of open forest.
The bark
is dark brown with yellow lenticel
s. The leaves
are oblanceolate to obovate, about 12 mm by 6 mm, with acumenate apex, glabrous above, thick, serrated with crenate margin, dark green, yellow in fall, with a short petiole
.
The flower
s are white hermaphroditic blossoms in leafy bract
s located 2-4 each on short peduncle
s in sessile
umbel
s. They are pollinated by bee
s. The plant flowers in May. The fruit
is light to dark red, globose to pyriform, about 8-25 mm in diameter, ripening in August. The taste is sour-sweet, or tart.
. The flowers are its basis of bee-keeping honey plant.
privacy screen and windbreak, and as a host plant for bees and other beneficial insects and birds. The shrub's network of penetrating roots are useful for soil stabilization in designed landscapes and habitat restoration projects.
The hardiness of Prunus fruticosa is a desirable quality in grafting and production of horticultural
cultivar
s. It is grafted to Prunus avium
'tree' rootstock, forming rounded top trees.
Linnaeus included this species in his Species Plantarum, referencing the Pinax of Gaspard Bauhin
, to whom he gives credit as "Bauh. pin. 450." The name assigned by Linnaeus is Prunus cerasus pumila, where pumila means "dwarf" (a rare word in Latin) and must come from Bauhin. He regards the shub as a variety of Prunus cerasus, the sour cherry.
Pallas
It was first authoritatively defined by Peter Simon Pallas
, the German naturalist invited by Catherine the Great to work in St. Petersburg. His unfinished Flora Rossica, a description of all the plants in the Russia
n Empire, dedicates one page to Prunus fruticosa, a shrub found in campis Isetensibus, "in the plains of the Iset
;" that is, the Siberia
n steppe
. He states the Linnaean synonym, giving the same reference to Bauhin, but makes the variety into a species, Pr. fruticosa. The last paragraph of Page 19 states his reasons for the classification, which have nothing to do with the name, but are in true Linnaean cryptic form, in this case a pun
.
The two Latin words of the pun are fructus or frux, from fruor, "enjoy" - a fruit is a result enjoyed - and frutex, "shrub", adjective fruticosus, "bushy", from a totally different root. Prunus is a grammatical feminine, so Prunus fruticosa agrees in gender. However, Pallas says Haec mihi tantum fructibus suis innotuit, qui distinctam itidem speciem indicare videntur, "It came to my attention at last because of its fruit, which repeatedly seemed to indicate a distinct species." The fruit seemed fere Pruni forma, "nearly in the form of Prunus", especially because praedita oblongo nucleo, "furnished with an oblong seed." So, Pallas moved it from Cerasus to Prunus.
Jacquin
Meanwhile quite independently Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
(Jacq.) published his own name, also selecting Prunus, utilising a Latinized Hellenic
name from Pliny the Elder
, chamaecerasi, plural of an implied chamaecerasus from Greek χαμαικέρασος, "ground cherry." Pliny bundles it with a Macedonia
n shrub, stating only that it is less than 3 cubit
s high.
Woronow
In 1925 Georg Gjurij Nikolaewitch Woronow (Voronov), 1874-1931, known botanically as (Ju.N, G., G.N. or GJN) Woronow, made an unsuccessful effort to retain Cerasus as a genus name and move fruticosa to it, creating another synonym, Cerasus fruticosa.
finds it is disappearing there by "genetic erosion" or "disappearance of typical morphological characters". It hybridizes naturally with Prunus cerasus to form Prunus x eminens , and with Prunus avium
to form Prunus x stacei.
Those forest plants are brought into closer contact with Prunus fruticosa by the modern disappearance of "contemporaneous sites of the steppe relics" once common in northern Poland, due to forest management since the 18th century, and the planting of stands of Prunus cerasus, which are more prolific in pollen.
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
, xerophytic
Xerophyte
A xerophyte or xerophytic organism is a plant which has adapted to survive in an environment that lacks water, such as a desert. Xerophytic plants may have adapted shapes and forms or internal functions that reduce their water loss or store water during long periods of dryness...
, winter-hardy, cherry-bearing shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
. 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
Physalis
Physalis is a genus of plants in the nightshade family , native to warm temperate and subtropical regions throughout the world. The genus is characterised by the small orange fruit similar in size, shape and structure to a small tomato, but partly or fully enclosed in a large papery husk derived...
.
Prunus fruticosa is native to Ciscaucasia
Ciscaucasia
Ciscaucasia , also Ciscaucasus or Fore-Caucasus, is a part of the Caucasus region, and of the North Caucasus in particular.The region is at the northern foothills of the Greater Caucasus range, from the Sea of Azov in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east, separated from the East European Plain...
, western Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
China, western Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
], Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Description
As a shrub Prunus fruticosa grows 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) high and as wide, in almost any soil, but best in loamy soil, spreading via suckerBasal shoot
A basal shoot, root sprout, adventitious shoot, water sprout or sucker is a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots. This shoot then becomes, or takes the form of, a singular plant. A plant that produces suckers is referred to as surculose...
s. Roots are abundant. The plant requires full sun, it is a steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
rather than a forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
plant, although it does form thickets at the edges of open forest.
The bark
Bark
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...
is dark brown with yellow lenticel
Lenticel
A lenticel is an airy aggregation of cells within the structural surfaces of the stems, roots, and other parts of vascular plants. It functions as a pore, providing a medium for the direct exchange of gasses between the internal tissues and atmosphere, thereby bypassing the periderm, which would...
s. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are oblanceolate to obovate, about 12 mm by 6 mm, with acumenate apex, glabrous above, thick, serrated with crenate margin, dark green, yellow in fall, with a short petiole
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...
.
The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are white hermaphroditic blossoms in leafy bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
s located 2-4 each on short peduncle
Peduncle (botany)
In botany, a peduncle is a stem supporting an inflorescence, or after fecundation, an infructescence.The peduncle is a stem, usually green and without leaves, though sometimes colored or supporting small leaves...
s in sessile
Sessility (botany)
In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...
umbel
Umbel
An umbel is an inflorescence which consists of a number of short flower stalks which are equal in length and spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs....
s. They are pollinated by bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s. The plant flowers in May. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is light to dark red, globose to pyriform, about 8-25 mm in diameter, ripening in August. The taste is sour-sweet, or tart.
Uses
As a sour tasting cherry, the fruit is used in cooking, and for jams and jellies. It has medicinal uses as an astringentAstringent
An astringent substance is a chemical compound that tends to shrink or constrict body tissues, usually locally after topical medicinal application. The word "astringent" derives from Latin adstringere, meaning "to bind fast"...
. The flowers are its basis of bee-keeping honey plant.
Cultivation
Prunus fruticosa is planted in hedgerows as an ornamental plantOrnamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
privacy screen and windbreak, and as a host plant for bees and other beneficial insects and birds. The shrub's network of penetrating roots are useful for soil stabilization in designed landscapes and habitat restoration projects.
The hardiness of Prunus fruticosa is a desirable quality in grafting and production of horticultural
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s. It is grafted to Prunus avium
Prunus avium
Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry, bird cherry, or gean, is a species of cherry, native to Europe, west Turkey, northwest Africa, 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...
'tree' rootstock, forming rounded top trees.
Classification
LinnaeusLinnaeus included this species in his Species Plantarum, referencing the Pinax of Gaspard Bauhin
Gaspard Bauhin
Gaspard Bauhin, or Caspar Bauhin , was a Swiss botanist who wrote Pinax theatri botanici , which described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to the later binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus...
, to whom he gives credit as "Bauh. pin. 450." The name assigned by Linnaeus is Prunus cerasus pumila, where pumila means "dwarf" (a rare word in Latin) and must come from Bauhin. He regards the shub as a variety of Prunus cerasus, the sour cherry.
Pallas
It was first authoritatively defined by Peter Simon Pallas
Peter Simon Pallas
Peter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.- Life and work :Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University...
, the German naturalist invited by Catherine the Great to work in St. Petersburg. His unfinished Flora Rossica, a description of all the plants in the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Empire, dedicates one page to Prunus fruticosa, a shrub found in campis Isetensibus, "in the plains of the Iset
Iset River
Iset River is a river in Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, and Tyumen Oblasts in Russia. It rises in the Ural Mountains 25km northwest of Yekaterinburg and flows east into the Tobol River. To the north of its basin is that of Tura River and to the south, the Uy River. The length of the Iset River is...
;" that is, the Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
. He states the Linnaean synonym, giving the same reference to Bauhin, but makes the variety into a species, Pr. fruticosa. The last paragraph of Page 19 states his reasons for the classification, which have nothing to do with the name, but are in true Linnaean cryptic form, in this case a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
.
The two Latin words of the pun are fructus or frux, from fruor, "enjoy" - a fruit is a result enjoyed - and frutex, "shrub", adjective fruticosus, "bushy", from a totally different root. Prunus is a grammatical feminine, so Prunus fruticosa agrees in gender. However, Pallas says Haec mihi tantum fructibus suis innotuit, qui distinctam itidem speciem indicare videntur, "It came to my attention at last because of its fruit, which repeatedly seemed to indicate a distinct species." The fruit seemed fere Pruni forma, "nearly in the form of Prunus", especially because praedita oblongo nucleo, "furnished with an oblong seed." So, Pallas moved it from Cerasus to Prunus.
Jacquin
Meanwhile quite independently Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin or Baron Nikolaus von Jacquin. was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany....
(Jacq.) published his own name, also selecting Prunus, utilising a Latinized Hellenic
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
name from Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, chamaecerasi, plural of an implied chamaecerasus from Greek χαμαικέρασος, "ground cherry." Pliny bundles it with a Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
n shrub, stating only that it is less than 3 cubit
Cubit
The cubit is a traditional unit of length, based on the length of the forearm. Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages and into Early Modern Times....
s high.
Woronow
In 1925 Georg Gjurij Nikolaewitch Woronow (Voronov), 1874-1931, known botanically as (Ju.N, G., G.N. or GJN) Woronow, made an unsuccessful effort to retain Cerasus as a genus name and move fruticosa to it, creating another synonym, Cerasus fruticosa.
Genetic erosion
A recent study of native Prunus fruticosa stands in northern PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
finds it is disappearing there by "genetic erosion" or "disappearance of typical morphological characters". It hybridizes naturally with Prunus cerasus to form Prunus x eminens , and with Prunus avium
Prunus avium
Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry, bird cherry, or gean, is a species of cherry, native to Europe, west Turkey, northwest Africa, 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...
to form Prunus x stacei.
Those forest plants are brought into closer contact with Prunus fruticosa by the modern disappearance of "contemporaneous sites of the steppe relics" once common in northern Poland, due to forest management since the 18th century, and the planting of stands of Prunus cerasus, which are more prolific in pollen.