Prunus Ilicifolia

Prunus ilicifolia

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rosaceae
Genus:	Prunus
Species:	P. ilicifolia
Binomial name
*Prunus ilicifolia* (Nutt. ex Hook. & Arn.) Walp.

Prunus ilicifolia (Common names: "Hollyleaf cherry",^[1] "Evergreen cherry";^[2] "Islay" - Salinan Native American^[3]) is an evergreen shrub^[1] to tree, producing edible cherries, with shiny and spiny toothed leaves^[1] similar in appearance to holly. It is native to the chaparral areas of coastal California and northern Baja California,^[2]^[4] as well as the desert chaparral areas of the Mojave desert.

Holly-leaved cherry grows 8 to 30 feet tall, with thick, alternate leaves 1 to 2 inches in length.^[1] It has small white flowers growing in clusters, similar in appearance to most members of the rose family, Rosaceae, flowering from March to May.^[1] The flowers are terminal on small stalks, with the youngest at the cluster center. The purple to black fruit is sweet,with a very thick pulp around a large single stone (drupe).^[1]

The plant is prized for cultivation, showy and easily grown from seed, and has been cultivated for hundreds of years (or more) as a food source, and tolerates twice yearly pruning when often used as a hedge.^[1] The plant likes full sun, loose open soil (porous), and tolertes drought conditions well, but needs regular watering when young.^[1] Bees are attracted to it.^[1]

Native Americans fermented the fruit into a drink used to get intoxicated.^[1] "Prunus" comes from the old Latin for "plum". "Ilici - folia means "holly like - leaves".^[1] This is the only species of the genus Prunus native to the Santa Monica Mountains that divide the Los Angeles basin from the San Fernando Valley, California.^[1]

1 Description
- 1.1 Subspecies
2 Distribution, habitat, and ecology
- 2.1 Regeneration and seedlings
  - 2.1.1 Butterflies
3 Cultivation
4 References
5 External links

Description [link]

Prunus ilicifolia flowers

It is an evergreen shrub^[1] or small tree approaching 15 meters in maximum height,^[5] with dense, hard leaves^[1] (sclerophyllous) foliage. The leaves are 1.6-12 cm long with a 4–25 mm petiole^[5] and spiny margins, somewhat resembling those of the holly, hence its English name. The leaves are dark green when mature and generally shiny on top, and have a smell resembling almonds when crushed. The flowers are small (1-5 mm), white, produced on racemes in the spring. The fruit is a cherry 12–25 mm diameter, edible^[1] and sweet, but contains little flesh surrounding the smooth seed.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Subspecies [link]

There are two subspecies:^[8]^[9]^[10]

P. ilcifolia subsp. ilicifolia - mainland California and Baja California, red fruit 12–18 mm diameter
P. ilicifolia subsp. lyonii (Eastw.) Raven - Catalina cherry, Channel Islands of California (San Clemente, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Island islands), blue-black fruit 15–25 mm diameter

Distribution, habitat, and ecology [link]

Prunus ilicifolia is native to California chaparral and foothill woodlands along the Coast Ranges below 1,600 m.^[5] Its distribution extends from northern Baja California along the California coast to the northernmost extent of the Coast Ranges,^[5], as well as into the desert chaparral areas of the Mojave desert. In chaparral communities, it tends to inhabit north-facing slopes, erosion channels, or other moist, cool sites.^[2]

It is a persistent member of chaparral communities, being slow-growing but long-lived; common chaparral flora associates are toyon, western poison-oak and coffeeberry.^[11] In the absence of fire, P. ilicifolia will outlive or outshade surrounding vegetation, making room for seedlings. Eventually, it will form extensive stands codominated by scrub oak.^[2]

Regeneration and seedlings [link]

Although it will resprout from the stump after fires, the seeds are not fire-adapted like those of many other chaparral plants.^[12] Instead, it relies on the natural death of surrounding vegetation during long periods of fire-free conditions to make room for its seedlings.^[2]

The seeds are also reported to require sunlight to germinate.^[12] However, near 100% germination rates have been achieved with wild-collected seed buried completely in pots with a peatlite mix.^[13]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Flowering Plants of the Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal & Chaparral Regions of Southern California, Nancy Dale, 1985, p172
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Fire Effects Information Service, USDA Forest Service: Prunus ilicifolia
^ E.G. Gudde (1946). The Solution of the Islay Problem. California Folklore Quarterly 5 (3): 298-299 (Gudde concludes that the word "islay" originated in a Salinan word slay; Islay was the Spanish version of their word).
^ Germplasm Resources Information Network: Prunus ilicifolia
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Jepson Flora: Prunus ilicifolia
^ Munz, Philip A. 1973. A California flora and supplement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
^ Conrad, C. E. (1987). Common shrubs of chaparral and associated ecosystems of southern California. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-99. Berkeley, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station.
^ Jepson Flora: Prunus ilicifolia subsp. ilicifolia
^ Jepson Flora: Prunus ilicifolia subsp. lyonii
^ ^a ^b Schoenherr, A. A. (1993). A Natural History of California. University of California Press, Berkeley.
^ Hogan, C. Michael (2008) Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), GlobalTwitcher, ed. N. Stromberg [1]
^ ^a ^b Keeley, Jon E. 1987. Role of fire in seed germination of woody taxa in California chaparral. Ecology 68(2): 434-443; cited in FEIS
^ Mirov, N. T., & Kraebel, C. J. (1937). Collecting and propagating the seeds of California wild plants. Research Note 18: 1-27. Berkeley, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, California Forest and Range Experiment Station