A Comprehensive Guide to Desert Almond (Prunus fasciculata)

Taxonomy

Desert Almond (Prunus fasciculata) was first named and described by John Torrey, an American botanist, in 1854 as Emplectocladus fasciculatus. The description was based on specimen collected by John Charles Fremont (Stanford University 1913 and Welsh 1998). Later in 1874, it was placed in the Prunus genus by Asa Gray to have its current name. It still has the same name and is a member of the Rose Family (Rosaceae).

Varieties

• var. fasciculata: has pubescent (hairy) leaves and has a wider distribution.
• var. punctata: has glabrous (hairless) leaves and found only in California.

Meaning of the Scientific and Common Names

Scientific Name

The genus name, Prunus, is Latin for “plum tree.” The species name, fasciculata, comes from the Latin word for “bundles”, referring to the leaves that are bunched on the stem, which are sometimes called fascicles.

Common Name and Alternative Names

The common name comes from the habitat of the species. Some other common names are wild almond and desert peach (Wikipedia), sand almond (Ferren 1984), and desert peachbrush (Cleary 1964 and Goodrich 1986).

• Plant Type: This plant is a shrub.
• Height: 3 to 10 feet tall
• Stem: suckering and thorny
• Leaves: The leaves are alternate, sessile, oblanceolate to linear in shape, have entire to nearly entire margins, and are 0.2 to 1 inch in length and 0.04 to 0.2 inches in width.
• Flower color: white to yellow
• Blooming period: This plant blooms from March to May.
• Fruiting type and period: This plant has gray to red-brown drupes (Flora of North America) that mature from (Apr) May to July.

This species is native to the southwestern United States. This species extends south into Mexico on the Baja Peninsula.

This species grows in desert scrub, coastal scrub and coastal dunes (Ferren 1984 and Chadwick and Keil 1989)), woodlands (Griswold 1986), blackbrush – Utah (Callison and Brotherson 1985), rocky slopes (Goodrich 1986), and washes (US Bureau of Land Management 1981 and Andre’ 2006).

The Prunus genus is general is a host to four butterflies including the henry’s elfin (Callophrys henrici), Coral hairstreak (Satyrium titus), the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), and the Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon) (Gaden, et al 2023). Desert Almond, because of its native range, would only host the pale swallowtail and maybe the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) (Calscape.org). This species also hosts the western tent caterpillar (Malacosma californica) (Stehr and Cook 1968), the Burns buckmoth (Hemileuca burnsi) (Tuskes 1976), the Neumoegen’s buckmoth (Hemileuca neumoegeni) (Tuskes 1985), and a plantbug (Pruneocoris stonedahli) (Schuh and Schwartz 2004).

This species is an important nectar source to other butterflies, skippers, bees, and wasps. Some species noted to visit this species include the desert green hairstreak (Callophrys comstockii), coastal green hairstreak (Callophrys dumetorum), and the thicket hairstreak (Callophrys spinetorum) (Shields 1972). Birds and small mammals enjoy the fruits in the summer.

Hardiness

This species is hardy in zones 7-10. If your garden is within these zones and you have the right growing conditions (soil, moisture and exposure), you may well be able to grow this plant. However, if planted outside of its range, the hosted species may not recognize the plant or be harmed by ingesting a different species with an unfamiliar chemical composition.

Optimal Conditions

This species grows in full sun to partial-shade and prefers sandy, dry well-drained soil. This species has been noted as being suitable for arid habitats (Taylor 1985).