Prunus subg. Prunus
Prunus subg. Prunus is a subgenus of Prunus. This subgenus includes plums, apricots and bush cherries. Some species conventionally included in Prunus subg. Amygdalus are clustered with plum/apricot species according to molecular phylogenetic studies. Shi et al. has incorporated subg. Amygdalus into subg. Prunus, thereby including almonds and peaches in this subgenus. The species in this subgenus have solitary flowers or 2–3 in a fascicle.
Sections according to Shi et al. (2013)
Shi et al. divide subg. Prunus into seven sections: sect. Amygdalus, sect. Armeniaca, sect. Emplectocladus, sect. Microcerasus, sect. Persicae, sect. Prunocerasus and sect. Prunus. They form three clades. The basal clade is sect. Emplectocladus which is sometimes treated as a subgenus. The other two clades are the Amygdalus-''Persicae clade and the Armeniaca-Microcerasus-Prunocerasus-Prunus'' clade.Sect. ''Emplectocladus''
Prunus sect. Emplectocladus A.Gray is the sister group to all the other species in this subgenus, and sometimes treated as a distinct subgenus, Prunus subg. Emplectocladus S.C.Mason. It includes six New World species.Prunus fasciculata – desert almondPrunus cercocarpifoliaPrunus eremophila – Mojave Desert almondPrunus havardii – Havard's wild almondPrunus microphylla – Mexican wild almondPrunus minutiflora – Texas wild almondSect. ''Amygdalus''
Prunus sect. Amygdalus Benth. & Hook.f. and the next section sometimes constitute Prunus subg. Amygdalus Focke which is monophyletic, but the incongruence between nuclear and chloroplast DNA phylogenies blurs the boundary between the two sections somewhat. The word "ămygdălus" is Latin for the almond nut.This section includes most Old World almond species except P. mongolica, P. tangutica, P. triloba, P. pedunculata, P. tenella, P. petunnikowii and probably other related species.
Selected species:Prunus arabica – Arabian wild almondPrunus amygdalus – almondPrunus fenzlianaPrunus spinosissima – thorny almond
Sect. ''Persica''
Prunus sect. Persica Nakai includes peach species as well as two species previously considered almonds.Prunus davidiana – Chinese peachPrunus ferganensis – Fergana peachPrunus kansuensis – Gansu peachPrunus mira – Tibetan peachPrunus mongolica – Mongolian almondPrunus persica – Persian peach / Common peachPrunus tangutica – Tangut almondSect. ''Armeniaca''
Species in this Prunus sect. Armeniaca Koch are apricots, native to Eurasia.Selected species:Prunus armeniaca – apricotPrunus mandshurica – Manchurian apricotPrunus mume – Mei or Chinese flowering plumPrunus sibirica – Siberian apricot
Sect. ''Microcerasus''
Species in Prunus sect. Microcerasus C.K.Schneid. are known as bush cherries or dwarf cherries.Selected species:Prunus glandulosaPrunus japonicaPrunus prostrataPrunus pumilaPrunus tianshanica
- ''Prunus tomentosa''
Sect. ''Prunocerasus''
Prunus sect. Prunocerasus Koehne includes New World plums and peachbush.Selected species:Prunus americana – American plumPrunus angustifolia – sand plumPrunus maritima – beach plumPrunus mexicana – Mexican plumPrunus nigra – Canada plumPrunus texana – peachbush
Sect. ''Prunus''
Prunus sect. Prunus includes Old World plums.Selected species:Prunus cerasifera – cherry plumPrunus domestica – European plumPrunus salicina – Chinese plumPrunus simonii – apricot plumPrunus spinosa – sloe
Additional sections
Species of the following sections were not presented in the results of Shi et al.. Therefore, their relationship with the sections proposed by Shi et al. is unclear.Sect. ''Chamaeamygdalus''
Prunus sect. Chamaeamygdalus Dippel used to be included in the Amygdalus-''Persica clade. However, molecular phylogenetic research indicates that it should be excluded from the Amygdalus-Persica clade. The phylogenetic positions of the species in this section are still uncertain.Prunus tenella – Russian almondPrunus petunnikowii''Sect. ''Louiseania''
Prunus sect. Louiseania Yazbek includes two or three Asian species. They are called flowering almond and morphologically close to wild almonds, but they are more related to bush cherries and apricots. According to nuclear phylogenomic analyses, the type species of sect. Louiseania, P. triloba, is embedded in sect. Microcerasus and closely related to the P. prostrata, the type species of sect. Microcerasus. However, in the phylogenetic tree based on plastid genome, P. triloba together with P. tomentosa and apricots is in a clade that is sister to the core part of sect. Microcerasus. The incongruity is attributable to multiple hybridization events during the speciation of P. triloba, which probably involves species of sect. Amygdalus, sect. Armeniaca, sect. Microcerasus, sect. Prunus, and even subg. Cerasus.Prunus pedunculataPrunus triloba- ''Prunus ulmifolia''