Prunus prostrata Labill.
Cerasus prostrata (Labill.) Ser.
Eng.: Mountain cherry, rock cherry. Spa.: Cerezo rastrero. Fre.: Prunier rampant. Ara.: Bu dhefar. Tam.: Abkhsis buzeru, teffah guiddaun.
Subshrub or shrub, deciduous, hermaphrodite, up to 1.5(2) m in height, but usually does not exceed 0.7 m, typically presenting a creeping habit. Stems and branches tortuous, greyish-brown bark, smooth, fissured transversely in the older parts. Young branchlets brown, pubescent. Leaves [0.5-2.7 × 0.3-1.5(1.8) cm] alternate, oval, subrhomboid or suborbicular, acute or obtuse, attenuated or rounded at the base, serrated margin, tomentose-pubescent when young, glabrous on the upper side and only slightly pubescent on the underside when adult, green on both sides (var. glabrifolia Moris) or green on the upper side and whitish-tomentose on the underside (var. discolor Raulin and var. incana Litard. & Maire). Petiole very short (1-4 mm in length), usually pubescent. Flowers solitary, rarely geminate or ternate, about 1 cm in diameter, subsessile. Calyx with 5 oblong sepals, greenish-reddish, 1-3 mm long, with dorsal side glabrescent and inner side villous-lanate. Corolla with 5 petals, obovate-suborbicular, white or pinkish, 3-6 mm long. Stamens numerous (30) with purple filaments and yellow anthers. Fruit an ovoid drupe, 6-8 mm, green and villous-lanate at first, finally red and glabrescent. Seed 1, ovoid, slightly compressed, with smooth surface.
Flowering:
March to July.
Fruiting:
August to October.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops in mountains (800-3,200 m) on various terrains, calcareous or siliceous. In semiarid (then in sheltered microclimates) to humid bioclimate, on mesomediterranean to oromediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region and western-central Asia to the Himalayas. In North Africa it is a species widely distributed along the major mountain ranges, even becoming abundant in several locations: Rif, Middle Atlas, High Atlas, Anti-Atlas, Tellian Atlas from Morocco to Tunisia, Saharan Atlas, Aures Massif and Tunisian Dorsal.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species, does not seem threatened. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Rhodes & Maxted, 2016).