Prunus subg. Prunus

Prunus subg. Prunus is a subgenus of Prunus. This subgenus includes plums, apricots and bush cherries. Most species inside this subgenus bear fruit that is sugary, storing large amounts of energy, which is why most Prunus species' fruits are soft and rubbery. Some species conventionally included in Prunus subg. Amygdalus are clustered with plum/apricot species according to molecular phylogenetic studies. Shi et al. (2013) has incorporated subg. Amygdalus into subg. Prunus, thereby including almonds and peaches in this subgenus.

Shi et al. (2013) divide subg. Prunus into seven sections: sect. Amygdalus, sect. Armeniaca, sect. Emplectocladus, sect. Microcerasus, sect. Persicae, sect. Prunocerasus and sect. Prunus. They form three clades. The basal clade is sect. Emplectocladus which is sometimes treated as a subgenus. The other two clades are the Amygdalus-Persicae clade (sometimes treated as subg. Amygdalus) and the Armeniaca-Microcerasus-Prunocerasus-Prunus clade (subg. Prunus in a narrow sense).

Sect. Emplectocladus Prunus sect. Emplectocladus (Torr.) A.Gray is the sister group to all the other species in this subgenus, and sometimes treated as a distinct subgenus, Prunus subg. Emplectocladus (Torr.) S.C.Mason. It includes six New World species.

Prunus fasciculata – desert almond Prunus cercocarpifolia Prunus eremophila – Mojave Desert almond Prunus havardii – Havard's wild almond Prunus microphylla – Mexican wild almond Prunus minutiflora – Texas wild almond



Sect. Amygdalus & Sect. Persica Prunus sect. Amygdalus (L.) Benth. & Hook.f. and Prunus sect. Persica (Mill.) Nakai sometimes constitute Prunus subg. Amygdalus (L.) Focke. They form a monophyletic clade together, but the boundary between them seems not very distinct. A few species, such as P. spinosissima (thorny almond) and P. kansuensis (Gansu peach), are clustered in either sect. Amygdalus or sect. Persica in different studies. The word "ămygdălus" is Latin for the almond nut."amygdalus", Online Latin Dictionary; accessed 2022.07.20. Sect. Amygdalus includes most Old World almond species except P. mongolica, P. tangutica, P. triloba, P. pedunculata, P. tenella, P. petunnikowii and probably other related species. Selected species:

Prunus arabica – Arabian wild almond Prunus dulcis – almond Prunus fenzliana Prunus spinosissima – thorny almond



Sect. Persica includes peach species as well as two species previously considered almonds (P. mongolica and P. tangutica).

Prunus davidiana – Chinese peach Prunus ferganensis – Fergana peach Prunus kansuensis – Gansu peach Prunus mira – Tibetan peach Prunus mongolica – Mongolian almond Prunus persica – peach Prunus tangutica – Tangut almond



Sect. Armeniaca

Species in this Prunus sect. Armeniaca (Scop.) Koch are apricots, native to Eurasia. Selected species:

Prunus armeniaca – apricot Prunus mandshurica – Manchurian apricot Prunus mume – Japanese apricot Prunus sibirica – Siberian apricot



Sect. Microcerasus

Species in Prunus sect. Microcerasus (Spach) C.K.Schneid. are known as bush cherries or dwarf cherries. Selected species:

Prunus glandulosa Prunus japonica Prunus prostrata Prunus pumila Prunus tianshanica Prunus tomentosa



Sect. Prunocerasus

Prunus sect. Prunocerasus Koehne includes New World plums and peachbush (P. texana). Selected species:

Prunus americana – American plum Prunus angustifolia – sand plum Prunus maritima – beach plum Prunus mexicana – Mexican plum Prunus nigra – Canada plum Prunus texana – peachbush



Sect. Prunus

Prunus sect. Prunus includes Old World plums. Selected species:

Prunus cerasifera – cherry plum Prunus domestica – European plum Prunus salicina – Chinese plum Prunus simonii – apricot plum Prunus spinosa – sloe