光核桃 guang he tao

Prunus mira Koehne in Sargent, Pl. Wilson. 1: 272. 1912; Persica mira (Koehne) Kovalev & Kostina.

Trees to 10 m tall. Branchlets green when young, grayish brown with age, slender, spreading, glabrous, with purplish brown small lenticels. Winter buds purplish brown, ovoid, 3–6 mm, glabrous, apex acute. Petiole 0.8–1.5 cm, glabrous, often with flattened purplish red nectaries; leaf blade lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 5–11 × 1.5–4 cm, abaxially pubescent along midvein, adaxially glabrous, base broadly cuneate to subrounded, margin shallowly crenate but entire near apex and teeth usually gland-tipped, apex acuminate. Flowers solitary, opening before leaves, 2.2–3 cm in diam. Pedicel 1–3 mm, 4–5 mm in fruit, glabrous. Hypanthium campanulate, purplish brown, outside glabrous. Sepals ovate to narrowly ovate, purplish green, outside glabrous or slightly villous along margin, apex obtuse. Petals pink, broadly obovate, 1–1.5 cm, apex emarginate. Stamens many, much shorter than petals. Ovary densely pubescent. Style longer or ± as long as stamens. Drupe subglobose, ca. 3 cm in diam., densely pubescent; mesocarp fleshy, not splitting when ripe; endocarp compressed ovoid-globose, ca. 2 cm, slightly flattened on both sides, surface smooth and with few longitudinal shallow furrows only on dorsal and ventral sides, base subtruncate and slightly asymmetric, apex acute. Fl. Mar–Apr, fr. Aug–Sep.

Slopes in mixed forests, mountain valleys, ravines; 2000--4000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Russia].

This species is cultivated for its fruit and seeds. It is often uncertain whether collections are wild, cultivated, or escaped from cultivation.