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Amygdalus ledebouriana

(Wild Almond)

Overview

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Endangered

Threat status

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Wild Almond

Description

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Family Rosaceae

Trees , shrubs , or herbs, deciduous or evergreen . Stems erect , scandent , arching , prostrate , or creeping , armed or unarmed . Buds usually with several exposed scales , sometimes with only 2. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, simple or compound ; stipules paired , free or adnate to petiole , rarely absent, persistent or deciduous; petiole usually 2-glandular apically; leaf blade often serrate at margin , rarely entire. Inflorescences various, from single flowers to umbellate , corymbose , racemose or cymose-paniculate. Flowers usually actinomorphic , bisexual , rarely unisexual and then plants dioecious. Hypanthium (formed from basal parts of sepals, petals, and stamens) free from or adnate to ovary, short or elongate . Sepals usually 5, rarely fewer or more, imbricate; epicalyx segments sometimes also present. Petals as many as sepals, inserted below margin of disk, free, imbricate, sometimes absent. Disk lining hypanthium, usually entire, rarely lobed . Stamens usually numerous , rarely few, always in a complete ring at margin of or above disk; filaments usually free, very rarely connate ; anthers small, didymous , rarely elongate, 2-locular. Carpels 1 to many, free, or ± connate and then adnate to inner surface of cupular receptacle; ovary inferior, semi-inferior, or superior; ovules usually 2 in each carpel, rarely 1 or several, anatropous , superposed . Styles as many as carpels, terminal , lateral , or basal, free or sometimes connate. Fruit a follicle, pome, achene, or drupe, rarely a capsule, naked or enclosed in persistent hypanthium and sometimes also by sepals. Seeds erect or pendulous, sometimes winged , usually exalbuminous , very rarely with thin endosperm; cotyledons mostly fleshy and convex abaxially, rarely folded or convolute.

Between 95 and 125 genera and 2825-3500 species: cosmopolitan , mostly in N temperate zone; 55 genera (two endemic) and 950 species (546 endemic) in China.

Many plants of this family are of economic importance and contribute to people s livelihoods. The Rosaceae contain a great number of fruit trees of temperate regions . The fruits contain vitamins, acids, and sugars and can be used both raw and for making preserves, jam, jelly, candy, various drinks, wine, vinegar, etc. The dried fruits of the genera

Amygdalus and Armeniaca are of high commercial value. Some plants in the genus Rosa containing essential oils or with a high vitamin content are used in industry . Rosaceae wood is used for making various articles, stems and roots are used for making tannin extract, and young leaves are used as a substitute for tea. Numerous species are used for medical purposes or are cultivated as ornamentals .

The Rosaceae are very well represented in China, with great economic and scientific importance. The Co-chairs of the Editorial Committee (Wu and Raven) here note that the patterns of relationship are complex and the group is taxonomically difficult. [1]

Genus Amygdalus

Trees or shrubs , deciduous. Branches unarmed or spiny . Axillary winter buds (2 or) 3, lateral ones flower buds, central one a leaf bud ; terminal winter buds present. Stipules present. Leaves simple , alternate, sometimes fascicled on short branchlets , conduplicate when young; petiole usually with 2 nectaries or sometimes nectaries at base of leaf blade margin ; leaf blade margin often serrate. Inflorescences borne on axillary short branches, 1(or 2) -flowered. Flowers bisexual , regular, opening before or rarely with leaves. Pedicel nearly absent or short, rarely long. Hypanthium caducous in fruit. Sepals 5, imbricate. Petals 5, pink or white, inserted on rim of hypanthium, imbricate. Stamens 15 to many, inserted with petals; filaments filiform , free . Ovary superior, hairy , 1-loculed; ovules 2, collateral , pendulous. Style terminal, elongated. Fruit a drupe, hairy, glabrous in some cultivated Amygdalus persica, with a conspicuous longitudinal groove ; mesocarp fleshy and not splitting or dry and splitting when ripe ; endocarp hard, 2-valved, globose or ellipsoid , usually compressed , surface furrowed , pitted , rugose , or smooth .

About 40 species; C, E, and SW Asia, S Europe; 11 species (four endemic, one introduced ) in China.

Many species and cultivars are grown for their edible fruit or as garden ornamentals , and a few species are also grown for their edible seeds.[2]

Habitat

Biome: Terrestrial [3].

Ecology: Used for almond oil production .[3].

List of Habitats :

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Schlecht. Publication : Abh. Naturf. Ges. Halle (1854) 1

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Amygdalus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 3 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. bucharica (Wild Almond) · A. ledebouriana (Wild Almond) · A. petunnikowi (Petunnikov Almond)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Cuizhi Gu, Chaoluan Li, Lingdi Lu, Shunyuan Jiang, Crinan Alexander, Bruce Bartholomew, Anthony R. Brach, David E. Boufford, Hiroshi Ikeda, Hideaki Ohba, Kenneth R. Robertson & Steven A. Spongberg "Rosaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 46. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Lu Ling-ti, Bruce Bartholomew "Amygdalus". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 391. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Participants of the FFI/IUCN SSC Central Asian regional tree Red Listing workshop, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (11-13 July 2006) 2007. Amygdalus ledebouriana. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 7/21/2012