BGFlora.eu

Genus Amygdalus L.

Род 420(27). БАДЕМ — AMYGDALUS L.¹

L., Sp. PI. ed. 1 (1753) 472; Gen. Pl.  ed. 5 (1754) 212 n° 545.

Fam:   Rosaceae Juss.
Genus:   Amygdalus L.
English Name: Rosid dicot genus

Description:

Trees and shrubs with falling leaves with thorny or not thorny branches and gray or chestnut gray crust. The branches with the end buds. The leaves are simple, consecutive in the extended shoots and in strands on the truncated branches, ovate, lance, oblong lance, nude, with glands on the stem and in the base of the lamina, with a slightly toothed edge. The flowers are single, almost sitting down or in short clusters of 2 - 3. The expanded flower bed cylindrical or bell-shaped. The sepals 5, along the end with hairs. Petals 5, white, pink or reddish to dark red, jagged to the top. Stamens 15 - 30, with yellow anthers. The style from a single carpel with an upper single-stranded fibrous ovary, a thin long style and a stiff-necked stigma. Fruits of stone, ellipsoid, laterally flattened, with fibrous dry dry exocarps, cracked when two halves mature, rarely indolent. The stone (endocarp) is hard, thick, outwardly smooth, reticulated or sponge-like. Seeds flattened ellipsoid, thick, bitter or sweet.

Table for determination of the species

1   The leaves are clearly jagged, elliptical or ovate, narrow and triple in the upper ….………….......................................... - A. triloba (Lindl.) Ricker
1* Leaves just jagged, not separated .......................................................................................................................................................................... 2
2   Trunks and thorny trees and large shrubs. Hyppanty as long as wide ....................................................................................................................... 3
2 * Small shrub without thorns. Hypinth almost twice as long as wide ...................................................................................................... 1. - A. nana L.
3 Thorn bush. Leaves up to 35 mm long and 6-9 mm wide. Fruit 20 - 25 mm long ……………....... ............................................. 2. - A. webbii Spach
3* Trees without thorn or thorn branches. The leaves are 20 - 40 mm wide. Fruit at least 35 mm long ...................... Common almond - A. communis L.
¹ Developed by St. Valev.

From:  „Флора на Н. Р. България”, том V, БАН, София, (1973)

*   *   *

Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes the plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds.
Around 430 species are spread throughout the northern temperate regions of the globe. Many members of the genus are widely cultivated for fruit and ornament. The fruit from this genus are commonly called the stone fruit.


Family:

Rosaceae

Subfamily:

Amygdaloideae[1]

Genus:

PrunusL.

Synonyms

Botany

Members of the genus can be deciduous or evergreen. A few species have spiny stems. The leaves are simple, alternate, usually lanceolate, unlobed, and often with nectaries on the leaf stalk. The flowers are usually white to pink, sometimes red, with five petals and five sepals. There are numerous stamens. Flowers are borne singly, or in umbels of two to six or sometimes more on racemes. The fruit is a fleshy drupe (a "prune") with a single relatively large, hard-coated seed (a "stone").[2]
Within the rose family Rosaceae, it was traditionally placed as a subfamily, the Amygdaloideae (incorrectly "Prunoideae"), but was sometimes placed in its own family, the Prunaceae (or Amygdalaceae). More recently, it has become apparent that Prunus evolved from within a much larger clade now called subfamily Amygdaloideae (incorrectly "Spiraeoideae").[1]

Classification

Linnean classification

In 1737, Carl Linnaeus used four genera to include the species of modern Prunus—Amygdalus, Cerasus, Prunus and Padus—but simplified it to Amygdalus and Prunus in 1758.[3] Since then, the various genera of Linnaeus and others have become subgenera and sections, as it is clearer that all the species are more closely related. Liberty Hyde Bailey says: "The numerous forms grade into each other so imperceptibly and inextricably that the genus cannot be readily broken up into species."[4]

Modern classification

A recent DNA study of 48 species concluded that Prunus is monophyletic and is descended from some Eurasian ancestor.[5]
Historical treatments break the genus into several different genera, but this segregation is not currently widely recognised other than at the subgeneric rank. ITIS recognises just the single genus Prunus, with an open list of species,[a] all of which are shown below, under "Species".[b]
One standard modern treatment of the subgenera derives from the work of Alfred Rehder in 1940. Rehder hypothesized five subgenera: Amygdalus, Prunus, Cerasus, Padus and Laurocerasus.[6] To them C. Ingram added Lithocerasus.[7] The six subgenera are described as follows:

Another recent DNA study[6] found that there are two clades: Prunus-Maddenia, with Maddenia basal within Prunus, and Exochorda-Oemleria-Prinsepia, but further refinement[1] shows that Exochorda-Oemleria-Prinsepia is somewhat separate from Prunus-Maddenia-Pygeum, and that, like the traditional subfamily Maloideae with apple-like fruits, all of these genera appear to be best considered within the expanded subfamily Amygdaloideae. Prunus can be divided into two clades: Amygdalus-Prunus and Cerasus-Laurocerasus-Padus. Yet another study adds Emplectocladus as a subgenus to the former.[8]

Toxicity

Many species are cyanogenic; that is, they contain compounds called cyanogenic glucosides, notably amygdalin, which, on hydrolysis, yield hydrogen cyanide.[23] Although the fruits of some may be edible by humans and livestock (in addition to the ubiquitous fructivory of birds), seeds, leaves and other parts may be toxic, some highly so.[24] The plants contain no more than trace amounts of hydrogen cyanide, but on decomposition after crushing and exposure to air or on digestion, poisonous amounts may be generated. The trace amounts may give a characteristic taste ("bitter almond") with increasing bitterness in larger quantities, less tolerable to people than to birds, which habitually feed on specific fruits.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

*   *   *

Amygdalus

The genus Amygdalus is in the family Rosaceae in the major group Angiosperms (Flowering plants).
Statistics are at the end of the page.

From “The Plant List” www.theplantlist.org/browse/A/Rosaceae/Amygdalus/

*   *   *

References: „Флора на Н. Р. България”, том V, БАН, София, (1973), Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “The Plant List” www.theplantlist.org/browse/A/Rosaceae/Amygdalus/

Distribution in Bulgaria: (Conspectus of the Bulgarian Vascular Flora) = conspectus&gs_l= Zlc.
Distribution:

SPECIES:

Amygdalus nana L. - Rosid dicot genus

E-mail: krnanev@gmail.com

© K.Nanev

Back to BEGINNING

© Copy right: K. Nanev© 2012. All rights reserved