Prunus mugus Hand.-Mazz.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Prunus mugus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/prunus/prunus-mugus/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
Tibet
Traditional English name for the formerly independent state known to its people as Bod now the Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. The name Xizang is used in lists of Chinese provinces.
acuminate
Narrowing gradually to a point.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
bud
Immature shoot protected by scales that develops into leaves and/or flowers.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
obtuse
Blunt.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
serrate
With saw-like teeth at edge. serrulate Minutely serrate.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Prunus mugus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/prunus/prunus-mugus/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

A deciduous thicket-forming shrub usually under 4 ft high in the wild, but occasionally reaching 10 ft; branchlets stout, downy; spurs short, covered with the persistent blackish bud-scales. Leaves thin, broadly oval, blunt or shortly acuminate at the apex, broadly wedge-shaped to rounded at the base, 34 to 134 in. long, 12 to 1 in. wide, rich green above, paler glaucous green beneath, glabrous except for scattered short bristles on the upper surface and usually some sparse down on the midrib beneath, margins doubly serrate; leaf-stalks 18 to 316 in. long, slightly downy. Flowers in clusters of two to five on stalks about 1 in. long on cultivated plants (shorter on wild specimens). Calyx-tube 516 to 38 in. long, between bell-shaped and cylindrical, puckered, green tinged with red; sepals oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse, edged with stalked glands. Petals about 14 in. long, 316 in. wide, rosy pink. Fruits roundish, red, about 38 in. wide. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 494.

Native of the high mountains of N.W. Yunnan and bordering parts of Burma and S.E. Tibet (Tsarong), where it forms dense thickets in the subalpine and alpine zone up to 13,000 ft; introduced by George Forrest in 1922 from the Salween-Kiu Chiang divide. His F.22874 was from plants 3 ft high, but F.22875 came from a stand 3 to 9 ft high, which helps to explain why some cultivated plants grow taller than the 3 to 4 ft given by Handel-Mazzetti. P. mugus is an interesting cherry, and would be one of the most ornamental if it flowered more freely.

P. mugus is quite closely related to the Himalayan P. rufa, which is a tree and has larger leaves, covered when young with a rusty down. Another ally is P. latidentata Koehne, varieties of which are in cultivation. They are, however, of no ornamental value and are not further treated here. See Ingram, Ornamental Cherries, pp. 139–42.