Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Each bloom opens five free, equal petals from the rim of a shallow cup, a single {pistil} at the centre ringed by twenty-five or more {stamens}. Leaves sit singly along the shoot, and every leaf stalk is flanked at its base by a pair of narrow {stipules} that shrivel and drop within weeks of unfurling. Crushed foliage and freshly cut bark give off a faint bitter-almond smell, the {cyanogenic} chemistry that makes leaves, bark and seed kernels dangerous to people, dogs, cats and livestock. Two tiny reddish {glands} sit at the very top of each leaf stalk where the blade begins, seeping nectar well away from any flower and drawing ants to the foliage. The ripe fruit is a {drupe}, flesh wrapped around one hard stone, never a core divided into several papery seed chambers. In the wild it grows in hedgerows, woodland margins and open rocky slopes from the Balkans east through Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia. It is a small spreading {deciduous} tree of 15 to 25 feet (4.6 to 7.6 m) tall and about as wide, with smooth dark reddish-brown bark, green young twigs and, in the wild type, white blossom over green leaves. Blossom opens in February, usually before the leaves are out, making it one of the earliest deciduous trees of the year to flower. The species epithet means cherry-bearing, for the round glossy red or yellow fruit 0.75 to 1.25 inches (2 to 3 cm) across that dangle on slender stalks. Its sour fruit is boiled down into the Georgian sauce tkemali, and the tree is widely grown as a {rootstock} for grafted orchard stone fruit. A dark-leaved form was sent to France in 1880 from the Shah of Persia's garden by his gardener M. Pissard, and its descendants, among them 'Atropurpurea', 'Thundercloud' and 'Krauter Vesuvius', became the dark-foliaged small street trees planted by the million across North America.

Accepted Answer

Prunus cerasifera

Name That Plant #029