Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry, gean, or bird cherry is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya. The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America and Australia.
Prunus avium has a diploid set of sixteen chromosomes (2n = 16). All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.


Prunus avium is a deciduous tree growing to 15–32 metres (49–105 feet) tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter. Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.
The bark is smooth purplish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown lenticels on young trees, becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees.
The leaves are alternate, simple ovoid-acute, 7–14 centimetres (2+3⁄4–5+1⁄2 inches) long and 4–7 cm (1+1⁄2–2+3⁄4 in) broad, glabrous matt or sub-shiny green above, variably finely downy beneath, with a serrated margin and an acuminate tip, with a green or reddish petiole 2–3.5 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄2 in) long bearing two to five small red glands. The tip of each serrated edge of the leaves also bear small red glands. In autumn, the leaves turn orange, pink or red before falling.
The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the new leaves, borne in corymbs of two to six together, each flower pendent on a 2–5 cm (3⁄4–2 in) peduncle, 2.5–3.5 cm (1–1+1⁄2 in) in diameter, with five pure white petals, yellowish stamens, and a superior ovary; they are hermaphroditic, and pollinated by bees. The ovary contains two ovules, only one of which becomes the seed.
The fruit is a drupe 1–2 cm (1⁄2–3⁄4 in) in diameter (larger in some cultivated selections), bright red to dark purple when mature in midsummer, edible, variably sweet to somewhat astringent and bitter to eat fresh. Each fruit contains a single hard-shelled stone 8–12 mm long, 7–10 mm wide and 6–8 mm thick, grooved along the flattest edge; the seed (kernel) inside the stone is 6–8 mm long.


The early history of its classification is somewhat confused. In the first edition of Species Plantarum (1753), Linnaeus treated it as only a variety, Prunus cerasus var. avium, citing Gaspard Bauhin's Pinax theatri botanici (1596).
His description, Cerasus racemosa hortensis ("cherry with racemes, of gardens") shows it was described from a cultivated plant. Linnaeus then changed from a variety to a species Prunus avium in the second edition of his Flora Suecica in 1755.
Sweet cherry was known historically as gean or mazzard (also 'massard'). Until recently, both were largely obsolete names in modern English.
The name "wild cherry" is also commonly applied to other species of Prunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American species Prunus serotina.
Prunus avium means "bird cherry" in the Latin language, but in English "bird cherry" refers to Prunus padus.


'Mazzard' has been used to refer to a selected self-fertile cultivar that comes true from seed, and which is used as a seedling rootstock for fruiting cultivars.
The term is used particularly for the varieties of P. avium grown in North Devon and cultivated there, particularly in the British orchards at Landkey.


The fruit are readily eaten by numerous kinds of birds and mammals, which digest the fruit flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings. Some rodents, and a few birds (notably the hawfinch), also crack open the stones to eat the kernel inside.
The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.
The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.
Prunus avium is thought to be one of the parent species of Prunus cerasus (sour cherry), by way of ancient crosses between it and Prunus fruticosa (dwarf cherry) in the areas where the two species overlap. All three species can breed with one another.
Prunus cerasus is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised.


It is often cultivated as a flowering tree. Because of the size of the tree, it is often used in parkland, and less often as a street or garden tree. The double-flowered form, 'Plena', is commonly found, rather than the wild single-flowered forms. In the UK, P. avium 'Plena' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Two interspecific hybrids, P. × schmittii (P. avium × P. canescens) and P. × fontenesiana (P. avium × P. mahaleb) are also grown as ornamental trees.


All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.


Some 18th- and 19th-century botanical authors assumed a western Asian origin for the species based on the writings of Pliny; however, archaeological finds of seeds from prehistoric Europe contradict this view.
Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years. The stones have been found in deposits at Bronze Age settlements throughout Europe, including in Britain. In one dated example, wild cherry macrofossils were found in a core sample from the detritus beneath a dwelling at an Early and Middle Bronze Age pile-dwelling site on and in the shore of a former lake at Desenzano del Garda or Lonato, near the southern shore of Lake Garda, Italy. The date is estimated at Early Bronze Age IA, carbon dated there to 2077 BCE plus or minus 10 years. The natural forest was largely cleared at that time.
By 800 BCE, cherries were being actively cultivated in Asia Minor, and soon after in Greece.
As the main ancestor of the cultivated cherry, the sweet cherry is one of the two cherry species which supply most of the world's commercial cultivars of edible cherry (the other is the sour cherry Prunus cerasus, mainly used for cooking; a few other species have had a very small input).
Various cherry cultivars are now grown worldwide wherever the climate is suitable; the number of cultivars is now very large. The species has also escaped from cultivation and become naturalised in some temperate regions, including southwestern Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the northeast and northwest of the United States.


The hard, reddish-brown wood (cherry wood) is valued as a hardwood for woodturning, and making cabinets and musical instruments. Cherry wood is also used for smoking foods, particularly meats, in North America, as it lends a distinct and pleasant flavor to the product.


The gum from bark wounds is aromatic and can be chewed as a substitute for chewing gum.
Medicine can be prepared from the stalks (peduncles) of the drupes that is astringent, antitussive, and diuretic.
A green dye can also be prepared from the plant.
Wild cherry is used extensively in Europe for the afforestation of agricultural land and it is also valued for wildlife and amenity plantings. Many European countries have gene conservation and/or breeding programmes for wild cherry.


Pliny distinguishes between Prunus, the plum fruit, and Cerasus, the cherry fruit. Already in Pliny quite a number of cultivars are cited, some possibly species or varieties, Aproniana, Lutatia, Caeciliana, and so on. Pliny grades them by flavour, including dulcis ("sweet") and acer ("sharp"). and goes so far as to say that before the Roman consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus defeated Mithridates in 74 BC, Cerasia … non-fuere in Italia, "There were no cherry trees in Italy". According to him, Lucullus brought them in from Pontus and in the 120 years since that time they had spread across Europe to Britain.
Although cultivated/domesticated varieties of Prunus avium (sweet cherry) did not exist in Britain or much of Europe, the tree in its wild state is native to most of Europe, including Britain. Evidence of consumption of the wild fruits has been found as far back as the Bronze Age at a Crannog in County Offaly, in Ireland.
Seeds of a number of cherry species have however been found in Bronze Age and Roman archaeological sites throughout Europe. The reference to "sweet" and "sour" supports the modern view that "sweet" was Prunus avium; there are no other candidates among the cherries found. In 1882 Alphonse de Candolle pointed out that seeds of Prunus avium were found in the Terramare culture of north Italy (1500–1100 BC) and over the layers of the Swiss pile dwellings. Of Pliny's statement he says (p. 210):
Since this error is perpetuated by its incessant repetition in classical schools, it must once more be said that cherry trees (at least the bird cherry) existed in Italy before Lucullus, and that the famous gourmet did not need to go far to seek the species with the sour or bitter fruit.
De Candolle suggests that what Lucullus brought back was a particular cultivar of Prunus avium from the Caucasus. The origin of cultivars of P. avium is still an open question. Modern cultivated cherries differ from wild ones in having larger fruit, 2–3 cm diameter. The trees are often grown on dwarfing rootstocks to keep them smaller for easier harvesting.
Folkard (1892) similarly identifies Lucullus's cherry as a cultivated variety. He states that it was planted in Britain a century after its introduction into Italy, but "disappeared during the Saxon period". He notes that in the fifteenth century "Cherries on the ryse" (i.e. on the twigs) was one of the street cries of London, but conjectures that these were the fruit of "the native wild Cherry, or Gean-tree". The cultivated variety was reintroduced into Britain by the fruiterer of Henry VIII, who brought it from Flanders and planted a cherry orchard at Teynham.


Prunus caroliniana, known as the Carolina laurelcherry, Carolina cherry laurel, Carolina cherry, or Cherry laurel, is a small evergreen flowering tree native to the lowlands of Southeastern United States, from North Carolina south to Florida and westward to central Texas. The species also has escaped into the wild in a few places in California.
Prunus caroliniana is not to be confused with its European relative, Prunus laurocerasus, which also is called Cherry Laurel, although mainly known as English Laurel in the U.S.


Prunus caroliniana is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree that grows to approximately 5–13 meters (16–43 feet) tall, with a spread of about 6–9 m (20–30 ft). The leaves are dark green, alternate, shiny, leathery, elliptic to oblanceolate, 5–12 centimeters (2–4+1⁄2 inches) long, usually with an entire (smooth) margin, but occasionally serrulate (having subtle serrations), and with cuneate bases. Reproductively mature trees have entire margins, whereas immature ones often have subtle serrations. The twigs are red to grayish brown, slender, and glabrous. When crushed, the leaves and green twigs emit a fragrance described as resembling maraschino cherries or almond extract.
Fragrant white to cream-colored flowers are produced in racemes (stalked bunches) 5–8 cm (2–3 in) long in the late winter to early spring. The fruits are tiny black cherries about 1 cm (1⁄2 in) in diameter, which persist through winter and are primarily consumed by birds (February–April).


The tree is a host plant for coral hairstreak, eastern tiger swallowtail, red-spotted purple, spring azures, summer azures, and viceroy butterflies where adult butterflies nectar from the spring flowers while the fruits are eaten by songbirds, wild turkeys, quail, raccoons, foxes, and small mammals.


The species has long been an ornamental tree and landscape hedge shrub in gardens in many parts of the Atlantic states of the United States. The tree is considered hardy in USDA zones 7B through 10A. It is often used in areas where a tough broadleaved evergreen tree is needed of modest size. It prefers full sun and well-drained, acidic soil, often developing chlorosis if grown in overly alkaline soil. It is known to grow to elevations of 152 m (500 ft).


Cultivated varieties include:
Prunus caroliniana 'Compacta' grows to about half the usual height and width of the species.
Prunus caroliniana 'Cherry Ruffles' has wavy/ruffled leaf margins.


The leaves and branches contain high amounts of cyanogenic glycosides that break down into hydrogen cyanide when damaged, making it a potential toxic hazard to grazing livestock and children. Due to this, it is considered highly deer-resistant.


The almond /ˈɑːmʊnd/ (Prunus amygdalus, syn. Prunus dulcis) is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus Prunus, it is classified with the peach in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the shell (endocarp) surrounding the seed.
The fruit of the almond is a drupe, consisting of an outer hull and a hard shell with the seed, which is not a true nut. Shelling almonds refers to removing the shell to reveal the seed. Almonds are sold shelled or unshelled. Blanched almonds are shelled almonds that have been treated with hot water to soften the seedcoat, which is then removed to reveal the white embryo. Once almonds are cleaned and processed, they can be stored over time. Almonds are used in many food cuisines, often featuring prominently in desserts, such as marzipan.
The almond tree prospers in a moderate Mediterranean climate with cool winter weather. California produces over half of the world's almond supply. Due to high acreage and water demand for almond cultivation, and need for pesticides, California almond production may be unsustainable, especially during the persistent drought and heat from climate change in the 21st century. Droughts in California have caused some producers to leave the industry, leading to lower supply and increased prices.


The almond is a deciduous tree growing to 4–12.2 metres (13–40 feet) in height, with a trunk of up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) in diameter. The young twigs are green at first, becoming purplish where exposed to sunlight, then gray in their second year. The leaves are 8–13 cm (3–5 in) long, with a serrated margin and a 2.5 cm (1 in) petiole.
The flowers are white to pale pink, 3–5 cm (1–2 in) diameter with five petals, produced singly or in pairs and appearing before the leaves in early spring. Almond grows best in Mediterranean climates with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. The optimal temperature for their growth is between 15 and 30 °C (59 and 86 °F) and the tree buds have a chilling requirement of 200 to 700 hours below 7.2 °C (45.0 °F) to break dormancy.
Almonds begin bearing an economic crop in the third year after planting. Trees reach full bearing five to six years after planting. The fruit matures in the autumn, 7–8 months after flowering.
The almond fruit is 3.5–6 cm (1+3⁄8–2+3⁄8 in) long. It is not a nut but a drupe. The outer covering, consisting of an outer exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh, fleshy in other members of Prunus such as the plum and cherry, is instead a thick, leathery, gray-green coat (with a downy exterior), called the hull. Inside the hull is a woody endocarp which forms a reticulated, hard shell (like the outside of a peach pit) called the pyrena. Inside the shell is the edible seed, commonly called a nut. Generally, one seed is present, but occasionally two occur. After the fruit matures, the hull splits and separates from the shell, and an abscission layer forms between the stem and the fruit so that the fruit can fall from the tree.


The seeds of Prunus dulcis var. dulcis are predominantly sweet but some individual trees produce seeds that are somewhat more bitter. The genetic basis for bitterness involves a single gene, the bitter flavor furthermore being recessive, both aspects making this trait easier to domesticate. The fruits from Prunus dulcis var. amara are always bitter, as are the kernels from other species of genus Prunus, such as apricot, peach and cherry (although to a lesser extent).
The bitter almond is slightly broader and shorter than the sweet almond and contains about 50% of the fixed oil that occurs in sweet almonds. It also contains the enzyme emulsin which, in the presence of water, acts on the two soluble glucosides amygdalin and prunasin yielding glucose, cyanide and the essential oil of bitter almonds, which is nearly pure benzaldehyde, the chemical causing the bitter flavor. Bitter almonds may yield 4–9 milligrams of hydrogen cyanide per almond and contain 42 times higher amounts of cyanide than the trace levels found in sweet almonds. The origin of cyanide content in bitter almonds is via the enzymatic hydrolysis of amygdalin. P450 monooxygenases are involved in the amygdalin biosynthetic pathway. A point mutation in a bHLH transcription factor prevents transcription of the two cytochrome P450 genes, resulting in the sweet kernel trait.


Almond is native to Iran and surrounding countries and ancient remains of almonds were discovered in the Levant area. It was spread by humans in ancient times along the shores of the Mediterranean into northern Africa and southern Europe, and more recently transported to other parts of the world, notably California, United States. The wild form of domesticated almond grows in parts of the Levant.
Selection of the sweet type from the many bitter types in the wild marked the beginning of almond domestication. It is unclear as to which wild ancestor of the almond created the domesticated species. The species Prunus fenzliana may be the most likely wild ancestor of the almond, in part because it is native to Armenia and western Azerbaijan, where it was apparently domesticated. Wild almond species were grown by early farmers, "at first unintentionally in the garbage heaps, and later intentionally in their orchards".


Almonds were one of the earliest domesticated fruit trees, due to "the ability of the grower to raise attractive almonds from seed. Thus, in spite of the fact that this plant does not lend itself to propagation from suckers or from cuttings, it could have been domesticated even before the introduction of grafting". Domesticated almonds appear in the Early Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC), such as the archaeological sites of Numeira (Jordan), or possibly earlier. Another well-known archaeological example of the almond is the fruit found in Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt (c. 1325 BC), probably imported from the Levant. An article on almond tree cultivation in Spain is brought down in Ibn al-'Awwam's 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture.
Of the European countries that the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh reported as cultivating almonds, Germany is the northernmost, though the domesticated form can be found as far north as Iceland.


Almond trees are small to medium sized but commercial cultivars can be grafted onto a different root-stock to produce smaller trees. Varieties include:
Nonpareil - originates in the 1800s. A large tree that produces large, smooth, thin-shelled almonds with 60–65% edible kernel per nut. Requires pollination from other almond varieties for good nut production.
Tuono - originates in Italy. Has thicker, hairier shells with only 32% of edible kernel per nut. The thicker shell gives some protection from pests such as the navel orangeworm. Does not require pollination by other almond varieties.
Mariana - used as a rootstock to result in smaller trees


The most widely planted varieties of almond are self-incompatible; hence these trees require pollen from a tree with different genetic characters in order to produce seeds. Almond orchards therefore must grow mixtures of almond varieties. In addition, the pollen is transferred from flower to flower by insects; therefore commercial growers must ensure there are enough insects to perform this task. The large scale of almond production in the U.S. creates a significant problem of providing enough pollinating insects. Additional pollinating insects are therefore brought to the trees. The pollination of California's almonds is the largest annual managed pollination event in the world, with 1.4 million hives (nearly half of all beehives in the US) being brought to the almond orchards each February.
Much of the supply of bees is managed by pollination brokers, who contract with migratory beekeepers from at least 49 states for the event. This business was heavily affected by colony collapse disorder at the turn of the 21st century, causing a nationwide shortage of honey bees and increasing the price of insect pollination. To partially protect almond growers from these costs, researchers at the USA government Agricultural Research Service have developed self-pollinating almond trees that combine this character with quality characters such as a flavor and yield. Self-pollinating almond varieties exist, but they lack some commercial characters. However, through natural hybridisation between different almond varieties, a new variety that was self-pollinating with a high yield of commercial quality nuts was produced.


Almond trees can be attacked by an array of damaging microbes, fungal pathogens, plant viruses, and bacteria.


Pavement ants (Tetramorium caespitum), southern fire ants (Solenopsis xyloni), and thief ants (Solenopsis molesta) are seed predators. Bryobia rubrioculus mites are most known for their damage to this crop.


Almond production in California is concentrated mainly in the Central Valley, where the mild climate, rich soil, abundant sunshine and water supply make for ideal growing conditions. Due to the persistent droughts in California in the early 21st century, it became more difficult to raise almonds in a sustainable manner. The issue is complex because of the high amount of water needed to produce almonds: a single almond requires roughly 1.1 US gallons (0.92 imperial gallons; 4.2 litres) of water to grow properly. Regulations related to water supplies are changing so some growers have destroyed their current almond orchards to replace with either younger trees or a different crop such as pistachio that needs less water.
Sustainability strategies implemented by the Almond Board of California and almond farmers include:
tree and soil health, and other farming practices
minimizing dust production during the harvest
bee health
irrigation guidelines for farmers
food safety
use of waste biomass as coproducts with a goal to achieve zero waste
use of solar energy during processing
job development
support of scientific research to investigate potential health benefits of consuming almonds
international education about sustainability practices


In 2020, world production of almonds was 4.1 million tonnes, led by the United States providing 57% of the world total (table). Other leading producers were Spain, Australia, and Iran.


In the United States, production is concentrated in California where 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) and six different almond varieties were under cultivation in 2017, with a yield of 2.25 billion pounds (1.02 billion kilograms) of shelled almonds. California production is marked by a period of intense pollination during late winter by rented commercial bees transported by truck across the U.S. to almond groves, requiring more than half of the total U.S. honeybee population. The value of total U.S. exports of shelled almonds in 2016 was $3.2 billion.
All commercially grown almonds sold as food in the U.S. are sweet cultivars. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported in 2010 that some fractions of imported sweet almonds were contaminated with bitter almonds, which contain cyanide.


Spain has diverse commercial cultivars of almonds grown in Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Aragón regions, and the Balearic Islands. Production in 2016 declined 2% nationally compared to 2015 production data.
The 'Marcona' almond cultivar is recognizably different from other almonds and is marketed by name. The kernel is short, round, relatively sweet, and delicate in texture. Its origin is unknown and has been grown in Spain for a long time; the tree is very productive, and the shell of the nut is very hard.


Australia is the largest almond production region in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of the almond orchards are located along the Murray River corridor in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.


Bitter almonds contain 42 times higher amounts of cyanide than the trace levels found in sweet almonds. Extract of bitter almond was once used medicinally but even in small doses, effects are severe or lethal, especially in children; the cyanide must be removed before consumption. The acute oral lethal dose of cyanide for adult humans is reported to be 0.5–3.5 mg/kg (0.2–1.6 mg/lb) of body weight (approximately 50 bitter almonds), so that for children consuming 5–10 bitter almonds may be fatal. Symptoms of eating such almonds include vertigo and other typical cyanide poisoning effects.
Almonds may cause allergy or intolerance. Cross-reactivity is common with peach allergens (lipid transfer proteins) and tree nut allergens. Symptoms range from local signs and symptoms (e.g., oral allergy syndrome, contact urticaria) to systemic signs and symptoms including anaphylaxis (e.g., urticaria, angioedema, gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms).
Almonds are susceptible to aflatoxin-producing molds. Aflatoxins are potent carcinogenic chemicals produced by molds such as Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. The mold contamination may occur from soil, previously infested almonds, and almond pests such as navel-orange worm. High levels of mold growth typically appear as gray to black filament like growth. It is unsafe to eat mold-infected tree nuts.
Some countries have strict limits on allowable levels of aflatoxin contamination of almonds and require adequate testing before the nuts can be marketed to their citizens. The European Union, for example, introduced a requirement since 2007 that all almond shipments to EU be tested for aflatoxin. If aflatoxin does not meet the strict safety regulations, the entire consignment may be reprocessed to eliminate the aflatoxin or it must be destroyed.
Breeding programs have found the high shell-seal trait. High shell-seal provides resistance against these Aspergillus species and so against the developlment of their toxins.


After tracing cases of salmonellosis to almonds, the USDA approved a proposal by the Almond Board of California to pasteurize almonds sold to the public. After publishing the rule in March 2007, the almond pasteurization program became mandatory for California companies effective September 1, 2007. Raw, untreated California almonds have not been available in the U.S. since then.
California almonds labeled "raw" must be steam-pasteurized or chemically treated with propylene oxide (PPO). This does not apply to imported almonds or almonds sold from the grower directly to the consumer in small quantities. The treatment also is not required for raw almonds sold for export outside of North America.
The Almond Board of California states: "PPO residue dissipates after treatment". The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reported: "Propylene oxide has been detected in fumigated food products; consumption of contaminated food is another possible route of exposure". PPO is classified as Group 2B ("possibly carcinogenic to humans").
The USDA-approved marketing order was challenged in court by organic farmers organized by the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group which filed a lawsuit in September 2008. According to the institute, this almond marketing order has imposed significant financial burdens on small-scale and organic growers and damaged domestic almond markets. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in early 2009 on procedural grounds. In August 2010, a federal appeals court ruled that the farmers have a right to appeal the USDA regulation. In March 2013, the court vacated the suit on the basis that the objections should have been raised in 2007 when the regulation was first proposed.


Almonds are 4% water, 22% carbohydrates, 21% protein, and 50% fat (table). In a 100-gram (3+1⁄2-ounce) reference amount, almonds supply 2,420 kilojoules (579 kilocalories) of food energy. The almond is a nutritionally dense food (table), providing a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of the B vitamins riboflavin and niacin, vitamin E, and the essential minerals calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. Almonds are a moderate source (10–19% DV) of the B vitamins thiamine, vitamin B₆, and folate, choline, and the essential mineral potassium. They also contain substantial dietary fiber, the monounsaturated fat, oleic acid, and the polyunsaturated fat, linoleic acid. Typical of nuts and seeds, almonds are a source of phytosterols such as beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, sitostanol, and campestanol.


Almonds are included as a good source of protein among recommended healthy foods by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A 2016 review of clinical research indicated that regular consumption of almonds may reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering blood levels of LDL cholesterol.


While the almond is often eaten on its own, raw or toasted, it is also a component of various dishes. Almonds are available in many forms, such as whole, slivered, and ground into flour. Almond pieces around 2–3 millimetres (1⁄16–1⁄8 in) in size, called "nibs", are used for special purposes such as decoration.
Almonds are a common addition to breakfast muesli or oatmeal.


A wide range of classic sweets feature almonds as a central ingredient. Marzipan was developed in the Middle Ages. Since the 19th century almonds have been used to make bread, almond butter, cakes and puddings, candied confections, almond cream-filled pastries, nougat,  cookies (macaroons, biscotti and qurabiya), and cakes (financiers, Esterházy torte), and other sweets and desserts.
The young, developing fruit of the almond tree can be eaten whole (green almonds) when they are still green and fleshy on the outside and the inner shell has not yet hardened. The fruit is somewhat sour, but is a popular snack in parts of the Middle East, eaten dipped in salt to balance the sour taste. Also in the Middle East they are often eaten with dates. They are available only from mid-April to mid-June in the Northern Hemisphere; pickling or brining extends the fruit's shelf life.


Marzipan, a smooth, sweetened almond paste, is used in a number of elegant cakes and desserts. Princess cake is covered by marzipan (similar to fondant), as is Battenberg cake. In Sicily, sponge cake is covered with marzipan to make cassatella di sant'Agata and cassata siciliana, and marzipan is dyed and crafted into realistic fruit shaped to make frutta martorana. The Andalusian Christmas pastry pan de Cádiz is filled with marzipan and candied fruit.


In French cuisine, alternating layers of almond and hazelnut meringue are used to make the dessert dacquoise. Pithivier is one of many almond cream-filled pastries.
In Germany, Easter bread called Deutsches Osterbrot is baked with raisins and almonds.
In Greece almond flour is used to make amygdalopita, a glyka tapsiou dessert cake baking in a tray. Almonds are used for kourabiedes, a Greek version of the traditional quarabiya almond biscuits. A soft drink known as soumada is made from almonds in various regions.
In Saudi Arabia, almonds are a typical embellishment for the rice dish kabsa.
In Iran, green almonds are dipped in sea salt and eaten as snacks on street markets; they are called chaqale bâdam. Candied almonds called noghl are served alongside tea and coffee. Also, sweet almonds are used to prepare special food for babies, named harire badam. Almonds are added to some foods, cookies, and desserts, or are used to decorate foods. People in Iran consume roasted nuts for special events, for example, during New Year (Nowruz) parties.
In Italy, colomba di Pasqua is a traditional Easter cake made with almonds. Bitter almonds are the base for amaretti cookies, a common dessert. Almonds are also a common choice as the nuts to include in torrone.
In Morocco, almonds in the form of sweet almond paste are the main ingredient in pastry fillings, and several other desserts. Fried blanched whole almonds are also used to decorate sweet tajines such as lamb with prunes. Southwestern Berber regions of Essaouira and Souss are also known for amlou, a spread made of almond paste, argan oil, and honey. Almond paste is also mixed with toasted flour and among others, honey, olive oil or butter, anise, fennel, sesame seeds, and cinnamon to make sellou (also called zamita in Meknes or slilou in Marrakech), a sweet snack known for its long shelf life and high nutritive value.
In Indian cuisine, almonds are the base ingredients of pasanda-style and Mughlai curries. Badam halva is a sweet made from almonds with added coloring. Almond flakes are added to many sweets (such as sohan barfi), and are usually visible sticking to the outer surface. Almonds form the base of various drinks which are supposed to have cooling properties. Almond sherbet or sherbet-e-badaam, is a popular summer drink. Almonds are also sold as a snack with added salt.
In Israel almonds are used as a topping for tahini cookies or eaten as a snack.
In Spain Marcona almonds are usually toasted in oil and lightly salted. They are used by Spanish confectioners to prepare a sweet called turrón.
In Arabian cuisine, almonds are commonly used as garnishing for Mansaf.
Certain natural food stores sell "bitter almonds" or "apricot kernels" labeled as such, requiring significant caution by consumers for how to prepare and eat these products.


Almonds can be processed into a milk substitute called almond milk; the nut's soft texture, mild flavor, and light coloring (when skinned) make for an efficient analog to dairy, and a soy-free choice for lactose intolerant people and vegans. Raw, blanched, and lightly toasted almonds work well for different production techniques, some of which are similar to that of soymilk and some of which use no heat, resulting in raw milk.
Almond milk, along with almond butter and almond oil, are a versatile products used in both sweet and savoury dishes.
In Moroccan cuisine, sharbat billooz is one of the best known beverages, served for weddings, it is made by blending blanched almonds with milk, sugar and other flavorings.


Almond flour or ground almond meal combined with sugar or honey as marzipan is often used as a gluten-free alternative to wheat flour in cooking and baking.
Almonds contain polyphenols in their skins consisting of flavonols, flavan-3-ols, hydroxybenzoic acids and flavanones analogous to those of certain fruits and vegetables. These phenolic compounds and almond skin prebiotic dietary fiber have commercial interest as food additives or dietary supplements.


Historically, almond syrup was an emulsion of sweet and bitter almonds, usually made with barley syrup (orgeat syrup) or in a syrup of orange flower water and sugar, often flavored with a synthetic aroma of almonds. Orgeat syrup is an important ingredient in the Mai Tai and many other Tiki drinks.
Due to the cyanide found in bitter almonds, modern syrups generally are produced only from sweet almonds. Such syrup products do not contain significant levels of hydrocyanic acid, so are generally considered safe for human consumption.


Almonds are a rich source of oil, with 50% of kernel dry mass as fat (whole almond nutrition table). In relation to total dry mass of the kernel, almond oil contains 32% monounsaturated oleic acid (an omega-9 fatty acid), 13% linoleic acid (a polyunsaturated omega-6 essential fatty acid), and 10% saturated fatty acid (mainly as palmitic acid). Linolenic acid, a polyunsaturated omega-3 fat, is not present (table). Almond oil is a rich source of vitamin E, providing 261% of the Daily Value per 100 millilitres.
When almond oil is analyzed separately and expressed per 100 grams as a reference mass, the oil provides 3,700 kJ (884 kcal) of food energy, 8 grams of saturated fat (81% of which is palmitic acid), 70 grams of oleic acid, and 17 grams of linoleic acid (oil table).
Oleum amygdalae, the fixed oil, is prepared from either sweet or bitter almonds, and is a glyceryl oleate with a slight odour and a nutty taste. It is almost insoluble in alcohol but readily soluble in chloroform or ether. Almond oil is obtained from the dried kernel of almonds. Sweet almond oil is used as a carrier oil in aromatherapy and cosmetics while bitter almond oil, containing benzaldehyde, is used as a food flavouring and in perfume.


The almond is highly revered in some cultures. The tree originated in the Middle East. In the Bible the almond is mentioned ten times, beginning with Genesis 43:11, where it is described as "among the best of fruits". In Numbers 17 Levi is chosen from the other tribes of Israel by Aaron's rod, which brought forth almond flowers. The almond blossom supplied a model for the menorah which stood in the Holy Temple, "Three cups, shaped like almond blossoms, were on one branch, with a knob and a flower; and three cups, shaped like almond blossoms, were on the other...on the candlestick itself were four cups, shaped like almond blossoms, with its knobs and flowers"  (Exodus 25:33–34; 37:19–20). Many Sephardic Jews give five almonds to each guest before special occasions like weddings.
Similarly, Christian symbolism often uses almond branches as a symbol of the virgin birth of Jesus; paintings and icons often include almond-shaped haloes encircling the Christ Child and as a symbol of Mary. The word "Luz", which appears in Genesis 30:37, sometimes translated as "hazel", may actually be derived from the Aramaic name for almond (Luz), and is translated as such in the New International Version and other versions of the Bible. The Arabic name for almond is لوز "lauz" or "lūz". In some parts of the Levant and North Africa it is pronounced "loz", which is very close to its Aramaic origin.
The Entrance of the flower (La entrada de la flor) is an event celebrated on 1 February in Torrent, Spain, in which the clavarios and members of the Confrerie of the Mother of God deliver a branch of the first-blooming almond-tree to the Virgin.


Prunus ilicifolia (Common names: hollyleaf cherry, evergreen cherry; islay - Salinan Native American) is native to the chaparral areas of coastal California (from Mendocino County to San Diego County), Baja California, and Baja California Sur. as well as the desert chaparral areas of the Mojave desert. Despite its name, it is not a true cherry (P. subg. Cerasus) species. It is traditionally included in P. subg. Laurocerasus, but molecular research indicates it is nested with species of P. subg. Padus.
Prunus ilicifolia is an evergreen shrub to tree, producing edible cherries, with shiny and spiny toothed leaves similar in appearance to those of holly. This resemblance is the source of both the common name "holly-leaved cherry" and the scientific epithet "ilicifolia" (Ilex-leaved). It grows 2.4 to 9.1 metres (8 to 30 feet) tall, with thick, alternate leaves 2.5 to 5.1 centimetres (1 to 2 inches) in length. It has small white flowers growing in clusters, similar in appearance to most members of the rose family, Rosaceae, flowering from March to May. The flowers are terminal on small stalks, with the youngest at the cluster center. The purple to black fruit is sweet, with a very thin pulp around a large single stone (drupe).
The plant is prized for cultivation, showy and easily grown from seed, and has been cultivated for centuries as a food source, and tolerates twice yearly pruning when often used as a hedge. The plant likes full sun, loose open soil (porous), and tolerates drought conditions well, but needs regular watering when young.


It is an evergreen shrub or small tree approaching 15 metres (49 feet) in height, with dense, hard leaves (sclerophyllous foliage). The leaves are 1.6–12 centimetres (3⁄4–4+3⁄4 inches) long with a 4–25 millimetres (1⁄8–1 in) petiole and spiny margins, somewhat resembling those of the holly. The leaves are dark green when mature and generally shiny on top, and have a smell resembling almonds when crushed; these are poisonous to eat, but not to handle. The flowers are small (1–5 mm), white, produced on racemes in the spring. The fruit is a cherry 12–25 mm in diameter, sweet in taste, with little flesh surrounding the smooth seed.


There are two subspecies:
P. ilcifolia subsp. ilicifolia - mainland California and Baja California, red fruit 12–18 mm diameter
P. ilicifolia subsp. lyonii (Eastw.) Raven - Catalina cherry,  Channel Islands of California (San Clemente, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Island islands), blue-black fruit 15–25 mm diameter


Prunus ilicifolia is native to California chaparral and foothill woodlands along the Coast Ranges below 1,600 m (5,200 ft). Its distribution extends from northern Baja California along the California coast to the northernmost extent of the Coast Ranges, as well as into the desert chaparral areas of the Mojave desert. In chaparral communities, it tends to inhabit north-facing slopes, erosion channels, or other moist, cool sites. This is the only species of the genus Prunus native to California's Santa Monica Mountains, which divide the Los Angeles Basin from the San Fernando Valley.
It is a persistent member of chaparral communities, being slow-growing but long-lived; common chaparral flora associates are toyon, western poison-oak and coffeeberry. In the absence of fire, P. ilicifolia will outlive or outshade surrounding vegetation, making room for seedlings. Eventually, it will form extensive stands codominated by scrub oak.


Although it will resprout from the stump after fires, the seeds are not fire-adapted like those of many other chaparral plants. Instead, it relies on the natural death of surrounding vegetation during long periods of fire-free conditions to make room for its seedlings.
Though the seeds are often reported to require sunlight to germinate, germination rates of nearly 100% have been achieved with wild-collected seed buried completely in pots with a peatlite mix.
The caterpillars of the pale swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon) feed on this and other members of the riparian woodland plant community.  It is also a larval host to the California hairstreak, Lorquin's admiral, Nevada buckmoth, and tiger swallowtail. Bees are attracted to it.


Prunus ilicifolia is used in California native plants and wildlife gardens, and drought-tolerant sustainable landscaping.


The pulp of the cherry is edible. Native Americans fermented the fruit into an intoxicating drink. Some also cracked the dried cherries and made meal from the seeds after grinding and leaching them. It has also been made into jam.


Prunus mexicana, commonly known as the Mexican plum, is a North American species of plum tree that can be found in the central United States and Northern Mexico.


Prunus mexicana has a single trunk and reaches a height of 4.6–11.6 metres (15–38 ft). It has dark green, simple ovate leaves, fragrant white or pale pink flowers, and dark gray bark banded with horizontal lenticels. Early in the spring it is covered with clouds of white fragrant flowers that are up to an inch wide. The dark red or purple fruit ripens late in the fall.
Prunus mexicana is very similar to Prunus americana, and they intergrade along a broad contact zone centered around Arkansas and Missouri. These intermediate individuals may be impossible to assign to a specific species.


Prunus mexicana is included in the section Prunocerasus.


The native range of the species stretches from South Dakota east to Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, and Georgia, and south to the Mexican states of Coahuila and San Luis Potosí.
It is usually found on woodland edges or in open fields. It is adaptable to a wide range of soil pH and is drought-tolerant. The trees are hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture zones 7 to 9.


The fruit is eaten fresh by both animals.


The fruit is made into preserves.
The tree is widely cultivated, such as on the west coast of the United States.


Prunus padus, known as bird cherry, hackberry, hagberry, or Mayday tree, is a flowering plant in the rose family. It is a species of cherry, a deciduous small tree or large shrub up to 16 metres (52 ft) tall.  It is the type species of the subgenus Padus, which have flowers in racemes.  It is native to northern Europe and northern and northeast Asia, and is grown as an ornamental in North America.


Prunus padus is native to eastern, central and northern Europe and spans central latitudes of Asia, including Japan.  Its distribution includes the all of Western and Central Europe north of the Pyrenees and the Alps and south of the treeline with small pockets also found in Iberia and Northern Italy and even parts of North Africa.  It also inhabits all of Eastern Europe north of the Balkan Mountains and the Steppe, as well as in the Caucasus.  In Asia it is found throughout the forests of Siberia, the Russian Far East, Korea, Hokkaido, and parts of China with pockets in the Himalayas.
The Mayday tree is abundant as an introduced species in Anchorage, Alaska, having been planted in great numbers by landscapers and homeowners.


The fruit is astringent due to its tannin content.
There are two varieties:
European bird cherry Prunus padus var. padus, Europe and western Asia.
Asian bird cherry Prunus padus var. commutata, eastern Asia.


The flowers are hermaphroditic and pollinated by bees and flies. The fruit is readily eaten by birds, which do not taste astringency as unpleasant.
In Eurasia, the Bird-cherry ermine moth (Yponomeuta evonymella) uses bird-cherry as its host plant, and the larvae can eat single trees leafless.
In North America the tree is often attacked by the black knot fungus.


The glycosides prulaurasin and amygdalin, which can be poisonous to some mammals, are present in some parts of P. padus, including the leaves, stems and fruits.


The fruit of this tree is seldom used in western Europe, but, long ago, may possibly have been used as a staple food far to the east. According to Herodotus (writing some 2500 years ago) a strange race called the Argippaeans, all bald from birth, who lived in an area identifiable possibly as the foothills of the Urals, would pick the bean-sized fruits of a tree called "pontic" and squeeze from them a drinkable black juice, making afterwards, from the residue of the pressing, a type of cake. This juice and the "cakes" produced in its manufacture were, according to Herodotus (who derived his account from the reports of Scythian traders), the main sustenance of the "bald people". Furthermore, according to A. D. Godley (translator of an edition of the works of Herodotus published in the early 1920s) it was said that the Cossacks not only made a similar juice from Prunus padus, but also called it by a name similar to the one (aschu) by which the bald Argippeans called theirs. As might well be expected of so cherry-loving a race, the Argippeans - a just and kindly people - took good care of their trees, protecting them from the harsh winters of their homeland - seemingly by incorporating them (as a central pole symbolising the axis mundi) into the yurt-like felt tents in which they lived:
They dwell each man under a tree, covering it in winter with a white felt cloth, but using no felt in summer. These people are wronged by no man, for they are said to be sacred; nor have they any weapon of war. These are they who judge in the quarrels between their neighbours; moreover, whatever banished man has taken refuge with them is wronged by none.
 - Herodotus, Ἱστορίαι (The Histories) Book IV, Chapter 23
In Russia the fruit of the tree is still used for culinary purposes. The dried berries are milled into a flour of variable fineness that forms the principal ingredient of bird-cherry cake. The flour is brown, and so is the cake, even though there is no chocolate in it. Both flour and cake are sold in local stores and bakeries. In a more conventional method of preparation, fresh bird cherries may also be minced and cooked to make jam.
The variety commutata is sold as an ornamental tree in North America under the common name Mayday. It is valued for its hardiness and spring display of fragrant, white flowers. The common name Mayday tree refers to the May Day festival, being unrelated to the distress signal mayday. The name for the tree was in use prior to the adoption of "mayday" (the phonetic equivalent of the French m'aider - from venez m'aider, "come [and] help me") as an international distress signal.
A taboo on the use of the wood of the hackberry (or hagberry) was reported by natives of Advie, in northeast Scotland, who believed it to be a "witches tree".
The tree was used medicinally during the Middle Ages, during which period it was also believed that the bark of the tree, placed at the door, would ward off plague.


Prunus pumila, commonly called sand cherry, is a North American species of cherry in the rose family. It is widespread in eastern and central Canada from New Brunswick west to Saskatchewan and the northern United States from Maine to Montana, south as far as Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, and Virginia, with a few isolated populations in Tennessee and Utah. It grows in sandy locations such as shorelines and dunes.
Prunus pumila is a deciduous shrub that grows to 0.61–1.83 metres (2–6 feet) tall depending on the variety.  It forms dense clonal colonies by sprouts from the root system. The leaves are leathery, 4–7 centimetres (1+5⁄8–2+3⁄4 inches) long, with a serrated margin. The flowers are 15–25 millimetres (9⁄16–1 in) in diameter with five white petals and 25–30 stamens. They are produced in small clusters of two to four. The fruit is a small cherry 13–15 mm (1⁄2–9⁄16 in) in diameter, ripening to dark purple in early summer.
Varieties
Prunus pumila var. besseyi (Bailey) Gleason, western sand cherry (also called Rocky Mountain cherry) – Saskatchewan, Manitoba, western Ontario, south to Colorado and Kansas
Prunus pumila var. depressa (Pursh) Gleason, eastern sand cherry – Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick south to Pennsylvania
Prunus pumila var. pumila, Great Lakes sand cherry – shores of Great Lakes
Prunus pumila var. susquehanae (hort. ex Willd.) Jaeger, Susquehana sand cherry – from Manitoba east to Maine, south to Tennessee
Prunus × cistena (purple leaf sand cherry) is a hybrid of Prunus cerasifera (cherry plum) and P. pumila. It was developed by Niels Ebbesen Hansen of South Dakota State University in 1910. They grow to be about 2.1 m (7 ft) tall and can live for up to 20 years.


Prunus serotina, commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the genus Prunus. Despite being called black cherry, it is not very closely related to the commonly cultivated cherries such as sweet cherry (P. avium), sour cherry (P. cerasus) and Japanese flowering cherries (P. serrulata, P. speciosa, P. sargentii, P. incisa, etc.) which belong to Prunus subg. Cerasus. Instead, P. serotina belongs to Prunus subg. Padus, a subgenus also including Eurasian bird cherry (P. padus) and chokecherry (P. virginiana). The species is widespread and common in North America and South America.
Black cherry is closely related to the chokecherry (P. virginiana); chokecherry, however, tends to be shorter (a shrub or small tree) and has smaller, less glossy leaves.


Prunus serotina is a medium-sized, fast-growing forest tree growing to a height of 15–24 metres (49–79 feet). The leaves are 5–13 centimetres (2–5 inches) long, ovate-lanceolate in shape, with finely toothed margins. Fall leaf color is yellow to red. Flowers are small, white and 5-petalled, in racemes 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long which contain several dozen flowers. The flowers give rise to reddish-black "berries" (drupes) fed on by birds, 5–10 millimetres (1⁄4–3⁄8 in) in diameter.
For about its first decade the bark of a black cherry tree is thin, smooth, and banded, resembling a birch. A mature tree has very broken, dark gray to black bark. The leaves are long and shiny, resembling a sourwood's. An almond-like odour is released when a young twig is scratched and held close to the nose, revealing minute amounts of cyanide compounds produced and stored by the plant as a defense mechanism against herbivores.


Like apricots and apples, the seeds of black cherries contain cyanogenic glycosides, compounds that can be converted into cyanide, such as amygdalin. These compounds release hydrogen cyanide when the seed is ground or minced, which releases enzymes that break down the compounds. These enzymes include amygdalin beta-glucosidase, prunasin beta-glucosidase and mandelonitrile lyase. In contrast, although the flesh of cherries also contains these compounds, it does not contain the enzymes needed to produce cyanide, so the flesh is safe to eat.
The foliage, particularly when wilted, also contains cyanogenic glycosides, which convert to hydrogen cyanide if eaten by animals. Farmers are recommended to remove any trees that fall in a field containing livestock, because the wilted leaves could poison the animals. Removal is not always practical, though, because they often grow in very large numbers on farms, taking advantage of the light brought about by mowing and grazing. Entire fencerows can be lined with this poisonous tree, making it difficult to monitor all the branches falling into the grazing area. Black cherry is a leading cause of livestock illness, and grazing animals' access to it should be limited.


Prunus serotina has the following subspecies and varieties:
Prunus serotina subsp. capuli (Cav. ex Spreng.) McVaugh – central + southern Mexico
Prunus serotina subsp. eximia (Small) McVaugh – Texas
Prunus serotina subsp. hirsuta (Elliott) McVaugh (syn. Prunus serotina var. alabamensis (C. Mohr) Little) – southeastern United States
Prunus serotina subsp. serotina – Canada, United States, Mexico, Guatemala
Prunus serotina subsp. virens (Wooton & Standl.) McVaugh – southwestern United States, northern + central Mexico
Prunus serotina var. virens (Wooton & Standl.) McVaugh
Prunus serotina var. rufula (Wooton & Standl.) McVaugh


Prunus serotina is a pioneer species. In the Midwest, it is seen growing mostly in old fields with other sunlight-loving species, such as black walnut, black locust, and hackberry. Gleason and Cronquist (1991) describe P. serotina as "[f]ormerly a forest tree, now abundant as a weed-tree of roadsides, waste land, and forest-margins". It is a moderately long-lived tree, with ages of up to 258 years known, though it is prone to storm damage, with branches breaking easily; any decay resulting, however, only progresses slowly. Seed production begins around 10 years of age, but does not become heavy until 30 years and continues up to 100 years or more. Germination rates are high, and the seeds are widely dispersed by birds and bears who eat the fruit and then excrete them. Some seeds however may remain in the soil bank and not germinate for as long as three years. All Prunus species have hard seeds that benefit from scarification to germinate (which in nature is produced by passing through an animal's digestive tract).
Deer browse the foliage.


P. serotina is a host of caterpillars of various Lepidoptera. The eastern tent caterpillar defoliates entire groves some springs.


Known as capolcuahuitl in Nahuatl (the source of the capuli epithet), it was an important food in pre-Columbian Mexico. Native Americans ate the fruit. Edible raw, the fruit is also made into jelly, and the juice can be used as a drink mixer, hence the common name 'rum cherry'.
Prunus serotina timber is valuable; perhaps the premier cabinetry timber of the U.S., traded as "cherry". High quality cherry timber is known for its strong orange hues, tight grain and high price. Low-quality wood, as well as the sap wood, can be more tan. Its density when dried is around 580 kg/m³ (36 lb/cu ft).
Prunus serotina was widely introduced into Western and Central Europe as an ornamental tree in the mid-20th century, where it has become locally naturalized. It has acted as an invasive species there, negatively affecting forest community biodiversity and regeneration.
Prunus serotina subsp. capuli was cultivated in Central and South America well before European contact.


Prunus spinosa, called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania and eastern North America.
The fruits are used to make sloe gin in Britain and patxaran in Spain. The wood is used to make walking sticks, including the Irish shillelagh.


Prunus spinosa is a large deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5 metres (16 feet) tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches. The leaves are oval, 2–4.5 centimetres (3⁄4–1+3⁄4 inches) long and 1.2–2 cm (1⁄2–3⁄4 in) broad, with a serrated margin. The flowers are about 1.5 cm (1⁄2 in) in diameter, with five creamy-white petals; they are produced shortly before the leaves in early spring, and are hermaphroditic and insect-pollinated. The fruit, called a "sloe", is a drupe 10–12 millimetres (3⁄8–1⁄2 in) in diameter, black with a purple-blue waxy bloom, ripening in autumn and harvested – traditionally, at least in the UK – in October or November after the first frosts. Sloes are thin-fleshed, with a very strongly astringent flavour when fresh.
Blackthorn usually grows as a bush but can grow to become a tree to a height of 6 m. Its branches usually grow forming a tangle.
Prunus spinosa is frequently confused with the related P. cerasifera (cherry plum), particularly in early spring when the latter starts flowering somewhat earlier than P. spinosa. They can be distinguished by flower colour, pure white in P. spinosa, creamy white in P. cerasifera. In addition, the sepals are bent backwards in P. cerasifera, but not in P. spinosa. They can be distinguished in winter by the shrubbier habit with stiffer, wider-angled branches of P. spinosa; in summer by the relatively narrower leaves of P. spinosa, more than twice as long as broad; and in autumn by the colour of the fruit skin purplish black in P. spinosa and yellow or red in P. cerasifera.
Prunus spinosa has a tetraploid (2n=4x=32) set of chromosomes.
Like many other fruits with pits, the pit of the sloe contains trace amounts of hydrogen cyanide.


The specific name spinosa is a Latin term indicating the pointed and thornlike spur shoots characteristic of this species. The common name "blackthorn" is due to the thorny nature of the shrub, and possibly its very dark bark: it has a much darker bark than the white-thorn (hawthorn), to which it is contrasted.
The word commonly used for the fruit, "sloe", comes from Old English slāh, cognate with Old High German slēha, slēwa, and Modern German Schlehe. Other cognate forms are Frisian and Middle Low German slē, Middle Dutch slee, slie, sleeu; Modern Dutch slee;  Modern Low German slee/slē, slī; Danish slåen.
The names related to 'sloe' come from the common Germanic root slaihwō. Compare Old Slavic, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Russian слива (sliva, Ukr. slyva), West Slavic / Polish śliwa; plum of any species, including sloe śliwa tarnina—root present in other Slavic languages, e.g. Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian šljiva / шљива.


The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa. It is also locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania and eastern North America.


The foliage is sometimes eaten by the larvae of Lepidoptera, including the small eggar moth, emperor moth, willow beauty, white-pinion spotted, common emerald, November moth, pale November moth, mottled pug, green pug, brimstone moth, feathered thorn, brown-tail, yellow-tail, short-cloaked moth, lesser yellow underwing, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, double square-spot, black hairstreak, brown hairstreak, hawthorn moth (Scythropia crataegella) and the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella. Dead blackthorn wood provides food for the caterpillars of the concealer moth Esperia oliviella.
The pocket plum gall of the fruit caused by the fungus Taphrina pruni produces an elongated and flattened gall, devoid of a stone.


The shrub, with its long, sharp thorns, is traditionally used in Britain and other parts of northern Europe to make a cattle-proof hedge.
The fruit is similar to a small damson or plum, suitable for preserves, but rather tart and astringent for eating, unless it is picked after the first few days of autumn frost. This effect can be reproduced by freezing harvested sloes.
Since the plant is hardy, and grows in a wide range of conditions, it is used as a rootstock for many other species of plum, as well as some other fruit species.


The juice is used in the manufacture of fake port wine, and used as an adulterant to impart roughness to genuine port, into the 20th century. In rural Britain a liqueur, sloe gin, is made by infusing gin with sloes and sugar. Vodka can also be infused with sloes.
In Navarre, Spain, a popular liqueur called pacharán is made with sloes. In France a similar liqueur called épine or épinette or troussepinette is made from the young shoots in spring. In Italy, the infusion of spirit with the fruits and sugar produces a liqueur called bargnolino (or sometimes prunella). In France, eau de vie de prunelle[s] is made in regions such as the Alsace and vin d'épine is an infusion of early shoots of blackthorn macerated with sugar in wine. Wine made from fermented sloes is made in Britain, and in Germany and other central European countries. It is also sometimes used in the brewing of lambic beer in Belgium.


Blackthorn makes an excellent fire wood that burns slowly with a good heat and little smoke. The wood takes a fine polish and is used for tool handles and canes. Straight blackthorn stems have traditionally been made into walking sticks or clubs (known in Ireland as a shillelagh). In the British Army, blackthorn sticks are carried by commissioned officers of the Royal Irish Regiment; this is a tradition also in Irish regiments in some Commonwealth countries.


Rashi, a Talmudist and Tanakh commentator of the High Middle Ages, writes that the sap (or gum) of P. spinosa (which he refers to as the prunellier) was used as an ingredient in the making of some inks used for manuscripts.
A "sloe-thorn worm" used as fishing bait is mentioned in the 15th-century work, The Treatyse of Fishing with an Angle, by Juliana Berners.


In Middle English, slō has been used to denote something of trifling value.
The expression "sloe-eyed" for a person with dark eyes comes from the fruit, and is first attested in A. J. Wilson's 1867 novel Vashti.
The flowering of the blackthorn may have been associated with the ancient Celtic celebration of Imbolc, traditionally celebrated on February 1 in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
The name of the dark-coloured cloth prunella was derived from the French word prunelle, meaning sloe.


The American bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) is the only species placed in the genus Psaltriparus and the only species in the family Aegithalidae that is found in the New World. In North America, it is referred to simply as "bushtit".


The American bushtit was formally described by the American naturalist John Kirk Townsend in 1837 and given the binomial name Parus minimus. Townsend noted that the species inhabited the forests of the Columbia River. It is now the only species placed in the genus Psaltriparus that was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name Psaltriparus combines the genus Psaltria that was introduced by Coenraad Temminck in 1836 for the pygmy bushtit with Parus that was introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the tits.
Ten subspecies are recognised:
P. m. saturatus Ridgway, 1903 – southwest Canada and northwest USA
P. m. minimus (Townsend, JK, 1837) – coastal west USA
P. m. melanurus Grinnell & Swarth, 1926 – southwest USA and north Baja California
P. m. grindae Ridgway, 1883 – south Baja California
P. m. californicus Ridgway, 1884 – south-central Oregon to south-central California
P. m. plumbeus (Baird, SF, 1854) – west-central, south USA and northcentral Mexico
P. m. dimorphicus Van Rossem & Hachisuka, 1938 – south-central USA and north-central Mexico
P. m. iulus Jouy, 1894 – west, central Mexico
P. m. personatus Bonaparte, 1850 – south-central Mexico
P. m. melanotis (Hartlaub, 1844) – south Mexico and Guatemala
The subspecies P. m. melanotis was formerly considered a separate species, the "black-eared bushtit".


The American bushtit inhabits mixed open woodlands, often containing oaks and a scrubby chaparral understory; it also inhabits parks and gardens. It is a year-round resident of the western United States and highland parts of Mexico, ranging from Vancouver through the Great Basin and the lowlands and foothills of California to southern Mexico and Guatemala.
The American bushtit is one of the smallest passerines in North America, at 11 cm (4.3 in) in length and 5–6 g (0.18–0.21 oz) in weight. It is gray-brown overall, with a large head, a short neck, a long tail, and a short stubby bill. The male has dark eyes and the adult female, yellow. Coastal forms have a brown "cap" while those in the interior have a brown "mask."
The subspecies (P. m. melanotis) can be identified by its dark ear patch (the auricular). This polymorphism does not occur in the northern part of the American bushtits' range, but is first noted near the Mexican border, primarily in Texas. Most individuals with the black ear patch in that area are juvenile males, and none are adult females – some have only one or two dark lines on the face instead of a complete patch. The black-eared form becomes more common southward in the northeastern (but not the northwestern) highlands of Mexico until from central Mexico south, all males have a complete black ear patch and even adult females have a black arc over the eye and usually a black line through the eye.
The American bushtit is active and gregarious, foraging for small insects and spiders in mixed-species feeding flocks containing species such as chickadees and warblers, of 10 to over 40 individuals. Members of the group constantly make contact calls to each other that can be described as a short spit.
This species produces an elaborate pendant nest of moss and lichen assembled with spider silk and lined with feathers.


Macaria abydata, commonly known as the dot-lined angle, is a moth of the  family Geometridae. It is native from northern Argentina to the Caribbean and southern United States (southern states from Arizona to Florida, regularly wandering north to Colorado, Kentucky and other more northern states). It has been introduced to the Pacific and has spread rapidly since. The first introduction occurred  in Hawaii in 1970 (recorded from all the main islands in 1984). Further spread occurred as follows:
1975: Yap, central Micronesia
1976: Bonin Islands (Chichi-jima, Haha-jima)
1977: Saipan, central Micronesia (1985)
1980: Okinawa Island
1983: Taiwan
1985: Guam, central Micronesia (1985) Sulawesi (1986)
1986: Tonga (1985), Fiji (1985), Miyako Islands (Miyako-jima), Luzon, the Philippines (1985)
1987: New Caledonia (1985), Sabah, Malaysia
1988: western Samoa (1985)
1992: Hong Kong
The wingspan is 22–27 mm (0.87–1.06 in).
The phrase "dot-lined" comes from the evidence of small dots along the postmedial and sometimes median line of both forewing and hindwing(anterior of the marginal band).
Recorded host plants for larvae in its natural range are Vachellia farnesiana, Cassia, Sesbania, Parkinsonia aculeata and Glycine max. Larvae have been observed on Acacia koa and introduced Lysiloma latisiliquum and Litchi chinensis in Hawaii. In the Indo-Australian tropics it has been reared from Leucaena and Mimosa diplotricha.


Psammodromus algirus, known commonly as the Algerian psammodromus, the Algerian sand racer, and the large psammodromus, is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to western Europe and northwestern Africa.


Psammodromus algirus is found in Algeria, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Tunisia.


The natural habitats of P. algirus are temperate forests, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, sandy shores, arable land, pastureland, plantations, and rural gardens. (Miras et al. 2005)


Psammodromus algirus mainly feeds on terrestrial arthropods, specifically Orthoptera, Formicidae, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Araneae.


P. algirus is threatened by habitat loss. (Miras et al. 2005)


P. algirus commonly reaches a length of about 10 to 15 cm.


The crested oropendola (Psarocolius decumanus), also known as the Suriname crested oropendola or the cornbird, is a New World tropical icterid bird. It is a resident breeder in lowland South America east of the Andes, from Panama and Colombia south to northern Argentina, as well as on Trinidad and Tobago. If the genus Gymnostinax for the Montezuma oropendola and its closest relatives were considered valid, this species would probably belong in that genus (Price & Lanyon 2002).
It is a common bird, seen alone or in small flocks foraging in trees for large insects, fruit, seeds and some nectar. The male is 46 cm long and weighs 300 g; the smaller female is 37 cm long and weighs 180 g.
The plumage of the crested oropendola has a musty smell due to the oil from the preen gland.


Adult males are mainly black with a chestnut rump and a tail which is bright yellow apart from two dark central feathers. There is a long narrow crest which is often difficult to see. The iris is blue and the long bill is whitish. Females are similar but smaller, duller, and crestless.


There are four subspecies:
P. d. insularis of Trinidad and Tobago has much chestnut edging on the feathers of the wings and back.
The nominate subspecies P. d.  decumanus occurs from Colombia south to the Amazon in Brazil.
P. d. maculosus breeds south of the Amazon. It is browner, and has yellow feathers scattered through the body plumage.
The northern form P. d. melanterus of Panama and western Colombia is very similar, differing only in the amount of chestnut feather tipping, and is of dubious status.


The crested oropendola inhabits forest edges and clearings. It is a colonial breeder which builds a hanging woven nest, more than 125 cm long, high in a tree. It lays two blotched blue-grey eggs which hatch in 15–19 days, with another 24–36 days to fledging.
Each colony has a dominant male, which mates with most of the females following an elaborate bowing display. There may be 15-30 females and only 3-4 males. Outside the breeding season, this species is quite mobile, with some seasonal movements.
The distinctive songs of the male include a descending call reminiscent of sliding one's hand on a piano. Both sexes have a loud clack call.
The crested oropendola is a host of the Acanthocephalan intestinal parasite Apororhynchus aculeatus.


The blue riverdamsel, Pseudagrion microcephalum is a common species of damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae.
It is also known as the blue sprite and blue grass dart.


This species can be found in the Australian states of New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. It can also be found in Asia: Bangladesh, China, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Hainan, Indonesia, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Viet Nam.


It is a medium-sized damselfly with pale blue eyes, dark on top. They grow to 38mm in length. Its thorax is azure blue with black, broad dorsal stripes and narrow humeral stripes. Abdominal segments 1 and 2 are blue with black marks on the dorsum. Mark on segment 2 looks like a chalice or thistle-head. Segments 3 to 7 are black on dorsum and blue on the sides. Segments 8 and 9 are blue; 8 with a thick and 9 with a thin black apical annules. Segment 10 is black on dorsum and blue on the sides. Superior anal appendages are of the same length of segment 10; black and divided at the apices.
Eyes and thorax of the female is bluish green, suffused with orange, marked as in the male; but black is replaced by orange. Color of the abdomen is similar to the male; but paler. Segments 8 and 9 are also black with fine apical blue rings. Segment 10 is pale blue.
Pseudagrion microcephalum looks similar to the common bluetail and the eastern billabongfly. The female is blue-grey to grey-green in colour.


This species can easily be found near running water or still water. They usually rest on the plants either in the middle of ponds or at the water edges. It breeds in ponds, lakes and streams. It is entirely a species of the plains, being replaced by Pseudagrion malabaricum in the neighboring hills of Western Ghats of India and Sri Lanka, and by Pseudagrion australasiae to the north-east of India and Burma.


Pseudochorthippus parallelus (often known by its synonym Chorthippus parallelus), the meadow grasshopper, is a common species of grasshopper in the tribe Gomphocerini.  It is found in non-arid grasslands throughout the well vegetated areas of Europe and some adjoining areas of Asia. It is a well-studied organism in the discipline of Evolutionary biology and was an early and important model system for the study of European phylogeography.


The range of the Meadow Grasshopper extends from the Atlantic coast of Europe, including the British Isles, to the Urals. It is found from Scandinavia in the north to southern Spain and Anatolia in the south. It prefers moist vegetation and in southern regions is typically found in river valleys and at altitude (up to approx 2000m), not being found in arid areas.


Females grow to approximately 2 centimetres (3⁄4 in) and are larger and less active than males that grow to approximately 1.5 centimetres (5⁄8 in). Both sexes are flightless. In females the wing cases (covering vestigial wings) extend only a short way down the abdomen while males have longer wing cases extending to almost the tip of the abdomen. They can be variable in colour with green, brownish, purple-red and pink forms recorded, although green forms are most common. Colour forms are genetically determined and some populations can show high frequency of pink grasshoppers.
Pseudochorthippus parallelus is distinguished from similar species by the approximately parallel nature of the bars (pronotal side-keels) on the back of the neck which gives the species its name.


Due to high densities of these insects in Western Europe, some researchers have also proposed their possible utilization as human food. These insects contain 69% proteins on dry weight with excellent amino acid profile and digestibility. Aman Paul and his co-workers indicated that before introducing these insects for human food, it is necessary to do a thorough examination of any possible toxic and/or allergic conditions that could arise from their consumption.


Various races of the meadow grasshopper have been described in different regions with forms described as separate subspecies.  They include:
P. parallelus erythropus (Faber, 1958) - Iberian Peninsula
P. parallelus parallelus (Zetterstedt, 1821) - nominate subsp., widespread including the British Isles
P. parallelus serbicus Karaman, Z., 1958
P. parallelus tenuis (Brullé, 1832) - Greece
These subspecies are the result of the allopatric separation of P. parallelus populations into separate southern European refugia during the Pleistocene ice ages.
The most widespread subspecies, P.p. parallelus, is found throughout much of Europe but is replaced by P.p. erythropus in Iberia. The Iberian erythropus subspecies is characterized in the field by red hind tibiae and differences in the mating song although other studies demonstrate additional differences in morphological, behavioural, chromosomal and DNA sequence characters. There is a hybrid zone between P.p. erythropus and P.p. parallelus running along the ridge of the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France. A similar hybrid zone has been described between forms in France and Italy that runs along the Alps.


Pseudocoremia suavis, the common forest looper, is a species of moth in the family Geometridae. It is regarded as being endemic to New Zealand. In 2007, however, the moth was found in west Cornwall, Great Britain, the first time it has been found outside of New Zealand.


The common forest looper is endemic and common throughout New Zealand feeding on many species of trees and shrubs. An unidentified specimen was caught on 15 April 2007 by Tony James at a regular garden light trap, approximately, near Tregonning Hill in the parish of Breage. By October a further four were caught in the same garden; although it took a year before the specimens were identified by the Natural History Museum, London. The garden is adjacent to a small plant nursery and it is possible the moth may have been introduced on plants from another British nursery.


The female laid sixty eggs, some individually but most in groups of fourteen to twenty along the edge of tissue paper. When laid the eggs were dark green turning to brownish purple after seven days. After seventeen days the larvae hatched eating the egg cases. In New Zealand breeding experiments many females laid over one hundred eggs.


The larvae feed on a wide range of trees and shrubs and have caused serious defoliation in exotic plantations in New Zealand on two occasions. In the 1950s and early 1960s in mostly Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) plantations in Canterbury (including Eyrewell Forest), and in the 1970s, Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) plantations on the North Island.


The pupae were 10–12 mm long, green at first turning mahogany-brown within two days. Pupation took two to three days.


The larvae feed on a wide range of plants in New Zealand including southern beech (Nothofagus spp.), podocarps and kanuka (Kunzea ericoides). They also feed on European gorse (Ulex europaeus). Some of the Cornish larvae initially fed on Leyland cypress (Cupressus × leylandii) and were moved to Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in the second instar when they became unhealthy. They also fed on box (Buxus sempervirens) and yew (Taxus baccata) but preferred Scots pine.


Pseudofumaria lutea (syn. Corydalis lutea), the yellow corydalis or rock fumewort, is a short-lived perennial plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. It is native to the southern foothills of the south-western and central Alps of Italy and Switzerland, but widely introduced elsewhere.


Yellow corydalis grows to 30–38 cm (12–15 in) tall. Leaves are finely divided and yellow-green to gray-green, often remaining over winter.
Flowers are 2 centimetres (0.75 in) long, borne in racemes on short, branched, leafy stems from late spring to autumn. They have 4 petals; the top and bottom ones crested, the top one with a short, rounded spur curved downwards, the 2 inner ones connected at the tip.
Its seeds, dark brown with white elaiosomes, are held in oval, flat pods. Plants self-seed abundantly.


Yellow corydalis is hardy to –34 °C (-30 °F; hardiness zone 4). It does best in light shade with good moisture, but will tolerate both full sun and deep shade. It grows wild in cracks in old walls where drainage is excellent.


Pseudognaphalium californicum (syn. Gnaphalium californicum) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by several common names, including ladies' tobacco, California rabbit tobacco, California cudweed, and California everlasting.
The plant is native to the west coast of North America from Washington to Baja California, where it is a member of the flora of many habitats, including chaparral.


Pseudognaphalium californicum is an annual or biennial herb growing a branching stem reaching 20 to 80 centimeters in height. Stem branches bear linear to somewhat lance-shaped leaves 2 to 20 centimeters long. The green herbage is glandular and scented. The leaves produce a distinctive citrus aroma.
The inflorescence is a wide cluster of flower heads, each enveloped in an involucre of rows of bright white phyllaries.


Classification is disputed between the genera Pseudognaphalium and Gnaphalium.


Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium (formerly Gnaphalium obtusifolium) is a member of the family Asteraceae, found on open dry sandy habitat throughout Eastern North America. Common names include old field balsam, rabbit tobacco and sweet everlasting. When crushed, the plant exudes a characteristic maple-syrup scent.


It is a biennial herb which grows up to one meter tall. In its first year, the plant produces tightly packed rosettes covered in wooly hair. In the second year, the plant produces a tall stem with alternate leaves and yellow peg-shaped flowerheads. These are borne in clusters. The seeds are dispersed by the wind. Its native habitats include dry clearings, fields, and edges of woods.


The Alabama tribe used a compound decoction of it as a treatment for nervousness and sleepiness, and a decoction as a face wash for nerves and insomnia.


The Koasati take a decoction of the leaves for fevers, and use it to bathe those who are feverish.


Forewing yellow green; costal edge pink, diffused towards apex; inner marginal area pink-suffused, except towards base; inner and outer lines oblique, darker green, conversely edged with white, the outer sometimes pink; subterminal line white, curved into apex: fringe pink with a white line at base; hindwing yellow; fringe pale pink, white at tips from apex to vein 2: abdomen white, dorsally suffused with yellow; in the female the abdomen is white, tinged with brown at base: forewing with costal edge white, and inner margin yellow; hindwing white. In the British form, subspecies P. p. britannica subsp. nov. (53 k), all the three lines are silvery white; the costal and inner margins in the male reddish only at apex and tornus respectively; in the ab. P. p. rufilinea ab. nov. (= ab. 2 Hmps.) (53 k) the outer line is marked with red. Larva apple green coarsely shagreened with yellow; the subdorsal line yellow; segment 2 red rimmed in front. The wingspan is 30–35 mm.


Pseudoleon superbus, the filigree skimmer, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae, and is the only species in the genus Pseudoleon.


Pseudomops septentrionalis, the pale bordered field cockroach or firefly roach, is a species of cockroach in the family Ectobiidae. It is found in Central America and North America.


Pseudopanax arboreus or five finger (Māori: puahou or whauwhaupaku), is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is one of New Zealand's more common native trees, being found widely in bush, scrub and gardens throughout both islands. The compound leaves with five to seven leaflets, hence the common name, are very characteristic of the tree and easily recognized.
Closely related and very similar to five finger are P. laetus, P. colensoi and P. macintyrei.


Leaflets obovate-oblong to oblong-cuneate, thinly coriaceous, coarsely serrate-dentate. Flowers usually unisexual; inflorescences are compound umbels with 8-20 primary branchlets up to 10 cm long, 15-20 secondary rays, umbellules with 10-15 flowers in each. Calyx truncate or obscurely 5-toothed; flowers 5mm in diameter, sweet-scented; petals 5, white to pink flushed, ovate to triangular, acute; stamens 5; ovary 2-loculed, each containing 1(-2) ovules; style branches 2, spreading. Fruit fleshy, very dark purple, laterally compressed, 5–8 mm diam.; style branches retained on an apical disc. Seeds 2(-3) per fruit, wrinkled, 3–6 mm long.


Pseudopanax arboreus is a host species for the caterpillar of the endemic North Island moth Declana atronivea.


Pseudopanax crassifolius, the horoeka or lancewood, is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is found throughout New Zealand from sea level up to about 750 m. The juvenile form, which lasts for between 15 and 20 years, is very easily recognized.  The leaves are stiff and leathery with a prominent central rib, about 1 cm wide and up to 1 m long with irregular teeth, all growing downwards from a central stem. The young trunk has characteristic vertical swollen ridges. As the tree gets older the stem begins to branch, producing a bushy top, and the leaves become wider and shorter, losing their teeth. It is only when the tree is mature that it adopts a typical tree shape.
One of the theories about this curious change of appearance is that the young plant had to protect itself against browsing by the moa, the giant flightless bird that roamed New Zealand's bush in prehistoric times. Once above moa height, it was out of danger and turns into a "regular" tree. A study of leaf colour development in P. crassifolius found that leaves of seedlings would blend with leaf litter, while juvenile leaf colouration would draw attention to their spines. A closely related Chatham Island species, which evolved in the absence of moa, did not display these changes.
Closely related is Pseudopanax ferox, the toothed lancewood.  It is similar to P. crassifolius except the leaves are more abundant and severely toothed, resembling remotely a bandsaw blade.


Pseudopanax lessonii, or houpara, is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Araliaceae.


Houpara is a shrub or tree up to 6 m tall, with stout branches. The leaves are crowded towards the tips of branchlets, and are 3- to 5-foliolate. Juvenile plants have larger leaves than adults. The petioles are 5–15 cm long.


Endemic to New Zealand, Houpara's natural range is coastal forest and scrub on the Three Kings Islands and the North Island as far south as Poverty Bay (38°4′S).


Houpara is popular in New Zealand gardens, but is rare in cultivation elsewhere, requiring mild, moist conditions, without extremes of temperature in winter and summer. A number of cultivars have been developed, including 'Gold Splash' which has yellow variegated leaves, and 'Nigra' which has dark purple-brown foliage.


The Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three varieties: coast Douglas-fir (P. menziesii var. menziesii), Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir (P. menziesii var. glauca) and Mexican Douglas-fir (P. menziesii var. lindleyana).
Despite its common names, it is not a true fir (genus Abies), spruce (genus Picea), or pine (genus Pinus). It is also not a hemlock; the genus name Pseudotsuga means "false hemlock".


Douglas-firs are medium-size to extremely large evergreen trees, 20–100 metres (70–330 feet) tall (although only Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii, common name coast Douglas-firs, reach heights near 100 m) and commonly reach 2.4 m (8 ft) in diameter, although trees with diameters of almost 5 metres (16 feet) exist. The largest coast Douglas-firs regularly live over 500 years, with the oldest specimens living for over 1,300 years. Rocky Mountain Douglas-firs, found further to the east, are less long-lived, usually not exceeding 400 years in age.
There are records of former coast Douglas-firs exceeding 120 metres (390 feet) in height, which if alive today would make it the tallest tree species on Earth. Some particular specimens that exceeded 400 feet tall were the Lynn Valley Tree and the Nooksack Giant.
The leaves are flat, soft, linear needles 2–4 centimetres (3⁄4–1+1⁄2 in) long, generally resembling those of the firs, occurring singly rather than in fascicles; they completely encircle the branches, which can be useful in recognizing the species. As the trees grow taller in denser forest, they lose their lower branches, such that the foliage may start as high as 34 m (110 ft) off the ground. Douglas-firs in environments with more light may have branches much closer to the ground.
The bark on young trees is thin, smooth, grey, and contains numerous resin blisters. On mature trees, usually exceeding 80 years, it is very thick and corky, growing up to 36 cm (14 in) thick with distinctive, deep vertical fissures caused by growth. Layers of darker brown bark are interspersed with layers of lighter colored, corky material. This thickness makes the Douglas-fir perhaps the most fire-resistant tree native to the Pacific Northwest.
The female cones are pendulous, with persistent scales, unlike those of true firs. They have distinctive long, trifid (three-pointed) bracts which protrude prominently above each scale and are said to resemble the back half of a mouse, with two feet and a tail. The cones are tan when mature, measuring 6–10 cm (2+1⁄2–4 in) long for coastal Douglas-firs and a couple of centimetres shorter inland.
The massive mega-genome of Douglas fir was sequenced in 2017 by the large PineRefSeq consortium, revealing a specialized photosynthetic apparatus in the light-harvesting complex genes.


Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii, the coast Douglas-fir, grows in the coastal regions from west-central British Columbia southward to central California. In Oregon and Washington, its range is continuous from the eastern edge of the Cascades west to the Pacific Coast Ranges and Pacific Ocean. In California, it is found in the Klamath and California Coast Ranges as far south as the Santa Lucia Range, with a small stand as far south as the Purisima Hills in Santa Barbara County. One of the last remaining old growth stands of conifers is in the Mattole Watershed, and is under threat of logging. In the Sierra Nevada, it ranges as far south as the Yosemite region. It occurs from sea level along the coast to elevations of 1,500 m (4,900 ft) or higher, and inland in some cases up to 2,100 m (6,900 ft).
Another variety exists further inland, Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca, the Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir or interior Douglas-fir. Interior Douglas-fir intergrades with coast Douglas-fir in the Cascades of northern Washington and southern British Columbia, and from there ranges northward to central British Columbia and southeastward to the Mexican border, becoming increasingly disjunct as latitude decreases and altitude increases. Mexican Douglas-fir (P. lindleyana), which ranges as far south as Oaxaca, is often considered a variety of P. menziesii.
Fossils (wood, pollen) of Pseudotsuga are recorded from the Miocene and Pliocene of Europe (Siebengebirge, Gleiwitz, Austria).
It is also naturalised throughout Europe, Argentina and Chile (called Pino Oregón). In New Zealand it is considered to be an invasive species, called a wilding conifer, and is subject to control measures. But is also one of the most common lumber trees used in forestry alongside Radiata pine with large plantations throughout the country. The species was introduced in the 1900s for its wood.


Douglas-fir prefers acidic or neutral soils. However, it exhibits considerable morphological plasticity, and on drier sites P. menziesii var. menziesii will generate deeper taproots. Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca exhibits even greater plasticity, occurring in stands of interior temperate rainforest in British Columbia, as well as at the edge of semi-arid sagebrush steppe throughout much of its range, where it generates even deeper taproots still.
The coast Douglas-fir variety is the dominant tree west of the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. It occurs in nearly all forest types and competes well on most parent materials, aspects, and slopes. Adapted to a more moist, mild climate than the interior subspecies, it grows larger and faster than Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir. Associated trees include western hemlock, Sitka spruce, sugar pine, western white pine, ponderosa pine, grand fir, coast redwood, western redcedar, California incense-cedar, Lawson's cypress, tanoak, bigleaf maple and several others. Pure stands are also common, particularly north of the Umpqua River in Oregon. It is most dominant in areas with a more frequent fire regime that suppresses less fire-resistant conifers.


Douglas-fir seeds are an extremely important food source for small mammals such as moles, shrews, and chipmunks, which consume an estimated 65% of each annual seed crop. The Douglas squirrel harvests and hoards great quantities of Douglas-fir cones, and also consumes mature pollen cones, the inner bark, terminal shoots, and developing young needles.
Mature or "old-growth" Douglas-fir forest is the primary habitat of the red tree vole (Arborimus longicaudus) and the spotted owl (Strix occidentalis). Home range requirements for breeding pairs of spotted owls are at least 400 ha (4 square kilometres, 990 acres) of old growth. Red tree voles may also be found in immature forests if Douglas-fir is a significant component. The red vole nests almost exclusively in the foliage of the trees, typically 2–50 metres (5–165 ft) above the ground, and its diet consists chiefly of Douglas-fir needles.
Douglas-fir needles are generally poor browse for ungulates, although in the winter when other food sources are lacking it can become important, and black-tailed deer browse new seedlings and saplings in spring and summer. The spring diet of the blue grouse features Douglas-fir needles prominently.
The leaves are also used by the woolly conifer aphid Adelges cooleyi; this 0.5 mm-long sap-sucking insect is conspicuous on the undersides of the leaves by the small white "fluff spots" of protective wax that it produces. It is often present in large numbers, and can cause the foliage to turn yellowish from the damage it causes. Exceptionally, trees may be partially defoliated by it, but the damage is rarely this severe. Among Lepidoptera, apart from some that feed on Pseudotsuga in general, the gelechiid moths Chionodes abella and C. periculella as well as the cone scale-eating tortrix moth Cydia illutana have been recorded specifically on P. menziesii.
The inner bark is the primary winter food for the North American porcupine.
Poriol is a flavanone, a type of flavonoid, produced by P. menziesii in reaction to infection by Poria weirii.


Pseudovadonia livida, the fairy-ring longhorn beetle, is a beetle species of flower longhorns belonging to the family Cerambycidae, subfamily Lepturinae.


Subspecies include:
Pseudovadonia livida bicarinata  (Arnold, 1869)
Pseudovadonia livida desbrochersi  (Pic, 1891)
Pseudovadonia livida hatayensis  Özdikmen, 2015
Pseudovadonia livida livida  (Fabricius, 1776)
Pseudovadonia livida pecta  (J. Daniel & K. Daniel, 1891)
Pseudovadonia livida setosa  Danilevsky, 2013


This beetle is widespread in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic (Bohemia, Moravia), Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sicily, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom).


This species mainly inhabits pine forests, but they are also present in deciduous trees (Quercus and Castanea species).


The adults of Pseudovadonia livida grow up to 5–9 millimetres (0.20–0.35 in). These small beetles are robust and have a broad head with large eyes, dense puncturation and erect pubescence. The antennae are black and robust, slightly shorter than the body. Pronotum is quadrate and shiny black, with shallow puncturation on the surface. Also the scutellum is shining black. Elytra are reddish-brown with darker suture. Shoulders are much wider than the base of the pronotum. They are covered with fine semi-erect golden hair.


Adults can be encountered from May through September, completing their life cycle in two years. They are very common flower-visitors, especially Apiaceae species, feeding on pollen and the nectar. Larvae do not develop in dead wood, as usual in many species of Cerambycidae, but in humus infested by fungus Marasmius oreades, feeding on mycelium.


Pseudozizeeria maha, the pale grass blue, is a small butterfly found in South Asia that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. The species was first described by Vincenz Kollar in 1844.


The subspecies of Pseudozizeeria maha are-
Pseudozizeeria maha maha Kollar, 1844 – Pakistan, north and northeast India, Indochina
Pseudozizeeria maha ossa Swinhoe, 1885 – south India
Pseudozizeeria maha okinawana (Matsumura, 1929) – Okinawa
Pseudozizeeria maha diluta (C. Felder & R. Felder, [1865]) – Yunnan
Pseudozizeeria maha saishutonis (Matsumura, 1927) – Korea
Pseudozizeeria maha argia (Ménétriès, 1857) – Japan


Male. Upperside silvery light blue with a satiny sheen in certain lights. Forewing: the apical half of the costa narrowly and the terminal margin for varying widths fuscous black, bounded outwardly on the latter by an obscure anteciliary black line. Hindwing: the costa broadly, the termen somewhat more narrowly fuscous black as in the forewing, with the width of this dark edging similarly variable; in addition there is a very diffuse and ill-defined subterminal series of spots darker than the fuscous margin. Underside: brownish grey. Forewing: a spot in cell, a transverse lunule on the discocellulars, and a transverse anteriorly inwardly curved series of eight discal spots, black; the transverse lunule and each spot encircled with a narrow white edging; the posterior two spots of the discal series geminate (paired). Beyond these are a postdiscal and a subterminal series of short transverse dusky black spots followed by an anteciliary black line; the ground colour between the discal and postdiscal series and between the latter and the subterminal series of spots posteriorly paler than on the rest of the wing. Hindwing: a transverse, subbasal, slightly sinuate line of four spots, a short, slender, lunular line on the discocellulars, and a very strongly curved discal series of eight small spots, black; the lunule and each spot encircled with a narrow edging of white; the posterior two spots of the discal series geminate as on the forewing; beyond these as on the forewing there is a double line of dusky spots, only more lunular, with between them and between the discal and postdiscal series the ground colour in the same way followed by slightly paler; an anteciliary fine black line. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings whitey brown, darker anteriorly on the forewing. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, shafts of the antennae ringed with white; in fresh specimens the thorax and abdomen with a little light blue pubescence; beneath: palpi, thorax and abdomen white.
Female upperside: brownish black; the basal halves of the wings slightly suffused with light blue, anteciliary black lines on both forewings and hindwings, and on the latter wing an obscure subterminal series of spots as in the male. Underside, similar, only the ground colour darker, the markings larger and more clearly defined. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male, but with no blue pubescence on the thorax and abdomen on the upperside.