Narrative

The apricot (Prunus armeniaca) originated in northern China near the Mongolian border. The tree grows to about 25 feet tall. The twigs are reddish, and the cordate leaves are smooth.

This lifeform is frequentlhy domesticated.

This lifeform is found in the Orient (China, Japan, Korea.) This non-native lifeform is now locally established in North America..

Prunus genus (plum, peach, and cherry trees) is a genus of commercially important fruit trees and bushes that is primarily found in the north temperate regions of the world. Additional species are also found in tropical America and tropical Asia. There are about 400 different species worldwide in this genus. North America is home to about 30 different native species. The fruits are edible in most species and the flowers are typically white or pink. There are 48 species and 31 subspecies growing in greater North America. The above counts assume that the Malus and Pyrus genera are separate from the Prunus genus. (Different authors create different boundaries for the various genera of fruit trees such as Prunus, Pyrus, and Malus. The old Padus genus has been moved into the Prunus genus.) Prunus spinosa is a European species. Following are some of the other Eurasian species in this genus: Prunus avium - Wild Cherry Prunus cerasifera - Cherry Plum Prunus laurocerasus - Common Laurel Prunus lusitanica - Portugal Laurel Prunus maackii - Ornamental Cherry Prunus mahaleb - Mahaleb Cherry Prunus padus - Bird Cherry Prunus(Amygdalus)persica - Peach Prunus serrula - Ornamental Cherry Prunus serrulata - Japanese Ornamental Cherry Prunus subhirtella - Spring Cherry Prunus triloba - Ornamental Almond not pictured Sloe Plum is a European species that is sometimes found wild in the northeastern United States. Several species in this genus contain seeds, leaves, and twigs that contain hydrogen cyanide and contain deadly poison if consumed.

Fruit Trees are an important group of plants. They provide essential foods and vitamins for human consumption. Included in this group are the apple, pear, peach, cherry, plum, prune, quince, apricot, etc.

Rose Family (Rosaceae) of the Rose Order contains the Rose genus and is a very large diverse family containing not only the roses, but many small weeds and also the important fruit trees including the apple, cherry, pear, and plum. Along with the Grass and Legume Families, this family is one of the most important of all plant groups. There are over 3,000 species in this family organized into over 100 different genera. There are over 840 species growing in greater North America. Typical flowers in this family have five petals and five sepals.

Here the family is arbitrarily divided as follows:

A) Miscellaneous small wild plants such as roses, strawberries, et cetera
B) Rose hybrids of interest to the flower gardener
C) Spiraea group (which forms a natural subfamily)
D) Fruit trees and hawthorns, et cetera

Rose Group (Order Rosales) contains many large and very important families. Included here are fruit trees in the family Rosaceae, the nitrogen fixing plants like clover and alfalfa (in the family Leguminosae), and a large assemblage of plants divided into over fifteen different families.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.