''Prunus eremophila'', also known by its common name Mojave Desert plum, is a rare species of plum native to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Description

''Prunus eremophila'' is a bulky shrub with tangled, thorny branches. It can reach over in maximum height. The

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

leaves have toothed, pointed, oval blades up to long. They are lightly hairy in texture. It blooms in March to April. The flowers occur singly or in pairs, each bearing small white petals. Either the

stamens The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

pistils Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) '' pistils' ...

abort, leaving female or male flowers. The fruit is orange-rust or a yellowish, fuzzy drupe up to wide, with a thin, dry pulp. The plant was described to science only in 2001 or 2002 and little is known about its ecology.The Nature Conservancy
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Distribution

The shrub is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

within northeastern

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

, where it is known only from the

Vontrigger Hills The Vontrigger Hills are a low mountain range in the eastern Mojave Desert, in eastern San Bernardino County, California. Vontrigger Hills are located in the southeastern Mojave National Preserve, approximately north of the small settlement of G ...

and

Lanfair Valley Lanfair Valley is located in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California near the Nevada state line. It is bounded on the north by the New York Mountains and Castle Mountains, on the east by the Piute Range, and on the south by the Woods Mountai ...

of the eastern

Mojave National Preserve Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, 1994, with the passage of ...

. It occurs in desert scrub habitat.California Native Plant Society Rare Plant Profile
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Conservation

The plant occurs in the

, so is protected from some human activity, but is a Critically Endangered species threatened by

off-road vehicle An off-road vehicle, sometimes referred to as an overland or adventure vehicle, is considered to be any type of vehicle which is capable of driving on and off paved or gravel surface. It is generally characterized by having large tires with de ...

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

, and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Prunus eremophila'' (Desert plum)

Jepson eFlora (TJM2) treatment of 'Prunus eremophila''

UC CalPhotos gallery: 'Prunus eremophila''
{{authority control eremophila Endemic flora of California Flora of the California desert regions Natural history of the Mojave Desert Lanfair Valley Mojave National Preserve Natural history of San Bernardino County, California Plants described in 2002 Critically endangered flora of California