#prunus

Actually, I'm not sure what flowers these are exactly, I'll tag everything 😆

I edited the effects .

Not all of the plants at the Botanical Gardens were rarities or merely ornamental - they had a few plants of agricultural value too. Of course it would have helped if they had a label saying WHICH stonefruit species this is - there's well over 300 in the genus, including plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds.

A few are grown for the ornamental value - Japan's famous flowering cherries spring to mind - but many others are grown for the fruit, which has a fleshy outer layer and a hard, often poisonous, shell around the seed.

The oldest known species in the genus is roughly 50 million years old - Prunus cathybrownae from the Early Eocene of Central British Columbia.

Plant of the Day

Monday 4 May 2026

The Prunus 'Pandora' (cherry) was having a moment to shine in this garden. This is a small deciduous tree with a neat, vase-shaped crown and becomes covered with a mass of flowers. The new leaves have a bronze tint when opening and turn orange in autumn.