Prunus himalayana

Prunus himalayana or bitter-cherry is in the rose or Rosaceae family and is native to Nepal, Buhtan, Sikkim (India) and Tibet (China). It prefers to grow at elevations between 2,800 m and 4,200 m in the Himalayas. As a shrub or small tree, it reaches up to 8 m tall.

It is in the chokecherry subgenus of the rose family [to be confirmed]. The species was previously called Maddenia himalaica.

• Leaves are on densely villous petioles 2–5 cm long, dark green above with impressed veins, pale green and prominent veins on the underside. Sterile shoots have leaves that are narrowly elliptic, oblong, or rarely ovate, 1.8 to 5 cm wide and 5 to 15 cm long, with sub-rounded to cordate bases, aristate biserrate margins, and long, pointed apices. Flowering shoots have leaves that are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2–5 cm wide and 5–9.5 cm long, cordate bases, incised and simple or biserrate margins, and long tips.
• Flowers are borne on dense racemes 3.6–6 cm long each with 10–20 flowers, the bisexual flowers being 2–4 mm in diameter.
• Fruit is an ovoid 9 mm drupe, purple when ripe.
• Branches over two years old are pubescent and have brownish-purple to brownish-red shiny bark; branchlets under one year old have densely brown villous (eventually becoming glabrous) brownish-red bark; winter buds are purplish-red and ovoid.