Prunus cerasifera and spinosa

February 27th, in Trowbridge. Prunus cerasifera (Myrobalan Plum, Cherry Plum), a haze of thousands of green-creamy buds. (Click photo to see it better.) This is the earliest semi-wild Prunus to make a showing, and these trees are earlier than any of the others in my area, probably because they're growing in a sheltered spot over water (the River Biss).

Within the crown a few sheltered blossoms had already decided to go for it. Some of these early ones have six petals, like the one on the right (below).

Being particularly incurious I have never wondered before what "Myrobalan" actually meant. I just assumed there was probably some part of the world called Myrobal or Myrobalia where this plant originated. Not so. The tree is native to large areas of Europe and Asia (though not the UK), and the general etymology of "myrobalan", according to something I read on the web, is : "Obsolete French mirobolan, from Latin myrobalanum, fragrant oil from seeds of the horseradish tree (), from Greek murobalanos : muron, perfume + balanos, acorn." Eh? Well, as far as I can make out the name became attached to a number of small tree species (e.g. the tropical fruit tree Phyllanthus emblica, commonly known as Myrobalan) and then ended up becoming applied to the cherry plum, referring to the smallish globular fruits. Or did it go in the other direction? To add to the confusion, the word was inevitably conflated, in many people's minds, with "mirabelle". This history of promiscuous re-attachment is fairly standard for non-scientific plant names (and scientific ones too, if they get half a chance).



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(A few weeks later, in West Swindon)



Mid-March, now smothered in blossom. A very common tree along the busy roads here.



By this time P. cerasifera is starting to overlap with early-flowering blackthorn (P. spinosa). The latter is never a tree, but the former is often a shrub, so it's quite common to find the two species entangled, as below (blackthorn at the front, cherry plum further back - note the emerging leaves).





Cherry plum sometimes has an occasional thorn, but anything that looks like the above is definitely blackthorn.



(Above). Blackthorn buds, snapped in mid-March. (Below) Blackthorn in flower a week later.




The flowers are the most similar things about the two plants. The one above is P. spinosa, the one below is P. cerasifera. You'll just have to take my word for it. The cherry plum flowers are a little larger, on average. (OK, so this blackthorn flower happens to be a six-petaller, but those are equally frequent on both plants.)



(Below.) Photo - it's P. cerasifera this time - to show that when the corolla is six-part, then so is the calyx.



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(beginning of August)

The blossoms of P. Cerasifera may be very uniform, the fruit are surprisingly varied in size, shape, colour and flavour - but they're usually delicious. This is an abundant wild food around towns, for those who care about it.