Prunus elaeagrifolia | |
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Scientific classification
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Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Rosaceae |
Genus: | Prunus |
Species: | P. elaeagrifolia
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Binomial name | |
Prunus elaeagrifolia | |
Synonyms | |
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Prunus elaeagrifolia ( Persian: ارژن) is a species of wild almond native to Iran. It is shrub or small tree 3-4 m tall, with the gray bark of its older twigs peeling in places and showing a brownish-yellow underbark. Its leaves are densely pubescent, with the pubescence yellowish gray. [2] It is mostly found in the southern portion of the Zagros Mountains, where in places it is one of the dominant tree species. Its 2n=16 chromosomes have karyotypic formula 7m+t. [3] [4]
The species was first described by Édouard Spach in 1843 as Amygdalus elaeagrifolia. [5] Spach repeated this spelling of the epithet in Jaubert's Illustrationes plantarum orientalium, which he helped to edit.[ citation needed] The epithet appears to be derived from elaeagros, the wild olive, and thus means 'wild olive-leaved'. [6] Subsequent writers seem to have thought he had made a typographic error, and so wrongly "corrected" the epithet to elaeagnifolia, [5] [6] meaning 'with leaves like Elaeagnus'.
In 1892, Karl Fritsch transferred the species from Amygdalus to Prunus, spelling the epithet as "elaeagnifolia" rather than Spach's elaeagrifolia. [7] As of October 2021 [update], some sources have followed Fritsch, calling the species Prunus "elaeagnifolia" rather than Prunus elaeagrifolia, [8] whereas the International Plant Names Index supported the use of elaeagrifolia. [1]