''Prunus pumila'', commonly called sand cherry, is a North American species of cherry in the
rose family
Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera.
The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are '' Alchemilla'' (270), ''Sorbus ...
. It is widespread in eastern and central
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
from
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
west to
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
and the northern United States from
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
to
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
, south as far as
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, and
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, with a few isolated populations in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
. It grows in sandy locations such as shorelines and dunes.
''Prunus pumila'' is a
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, ...
shrub that grows to tall depending on the variety. It forms dense
clonal colonies
A clonal colony or genet is a group of genetically identical individuals, such as plants, fungi, or bacteria, that have grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively, not sexually, from a single ancestor. In plants, an individual in s ...
by sprouts from the root system. The leaves are leathery, long, with a serrated margin. The
flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
s are in diameter with five white petals and 25–30 stamens. They are produced in small clusters of two to four. The
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
is a small cherry in diameter, ripening to dark purple in early summer.Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan .Flora of North America, ''Prunus pumila'' Linnaeus, 1767. Sandcherry, cerisier des sables /ref>
;Varieties
*''Prunus pumila'' var. ''besseyi'' (Bailey) Gleason, western sand cherry (also called Rocky Mountain cherry)Saskatchewan, Manitoba, western Ontario, south to Colorado and Kansas
*''Prunus pumila'' var. ''depressa'' (Pursh) Gleason, eastern sand cherryOntario, Québec, New Brunswick south to Pennsylvania
*''Prunus pumila'' var. ''pumila'', Great Lakes sand cherryshores of
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...
*''Prunus pumila'' var. ''susquehanae'' (hort. ex Willd.) Jaeger, Susquehana sand cherryfrom Manitoba east to Maine, south to Tennessee
*''
Prunus × cistena
''Prunus'' × ''cistena'', the purple leaf sand cherry or dwarf red-leaf plum, is a hybrid species of ''Prunus'', the result of a cross between ''Prunus cerasifera'' (cherry plum or myrobalan plum) and ''Prunus pumila'' (sand cherry). A leggy bus ...
'' (purple leaf sand cherry) is a hybrid of ''
Prunus cerasifera
__NOTOC__
''Prunus cerasifera'' is a species of plum known by the common names cherry plum and myrobalan plum.Niels Ebbesen Hansen of
South Dakota State University
South Dakota State University is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest and most comprehensive university and the oldest continually-operating university in South Dakota. The ...
in 1910. They grow to be about tall and can live for up to 20 years.
Gallery
Prunus pumila var. depressa kz01.jpg, ''P. pumila'' var. ''depressa'' in bloom
Prunus pumila var pumila, June.jpg, ''P. pumila'' var. ''pumila'' just after flowering, in June
Prunus pumila 4 (5097489635).jpg, Mature flowers
Prunus pumila (Sand Cherry) (09246a38-f43e-4dea-9228-bfa42287be9f).jpg, Cherries (mostly unripe) growing on branches
Prunus pumila 2-eheep (5097472729).jpg, Close-up of leaves