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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
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Introductory
SPECIES: Prunus fremontii | Desert Apricot
ABBREVIATION :
PRUFRE
SYNONYMS :
NO-ENTRY
SCS PLANT CODE :
PRFR
COMMON NAMES :
desert apricot
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name of desert apricot is Prunus
fremontii S. Wats [4,6,7]. There are no currently recognized
subspecies, varieties, or forms.
LIFE FORM :
Tree, Shrub
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
COMPILED BY AND DATE :
William R. Reed, July 1993
LAST REVISED BY AND DATE :
NO-ENTRY
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Reed, William R. 1993. Prunus fremontii. In: Remainder of Citation
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Prunus fremontii | Desert Apricot
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Desert apricot occurs in Riverside and San Diego counties, California
[6,7].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES30 Desert shrub
FRES34 Chaparral - mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon - juniper
STATES :
CA
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS :
JOTR
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
3 Southern Pacific Border
7 Lower Basin and Range
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K023 Juniper - pinyon woodland
K033 Chaparral
K035 Coastal sagebrush
K041 Creosotebush
K042 Creosotebush - bursage
K043 Paloverde - cactus shrub
SAF COVER TYPES :
239 Pinyon - juniper
242 Mesquite
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
NO-ENTRY
VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Prunus fremontii | Desert Apricot
WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Desert apricot has little or no value to browsing animals. Tannic acids
and cyanogenic glucosides in the leaves discourage consumption.
Extrafloral nectaries attract a variety of insects, particularly wasps
and ants, to the leaves. The presence of these insects further
discourages browsing [8,14].
PALATABILITY :
NO-ENTRY
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
NO-ENTRY
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
NO-ENTRY
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
NO-ENTRY
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Prunus fremontii | Desert Apricot
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Desert apricot is a rigidly branched, native, deciduous shrub or small
tree. It grows from 5 to 13 feet tall (1.5-4 m) and has glabrous,
spine-tipped twigs. Leaves are round and 0.5 to 0.75 (1-2 cm) long. It
bears a stone fruit which is 0.32 to 0.56 inches long (8-14 mm) [6,7].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Phanerophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
NO-ENTRY
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Desert apricot is predominantly found in canyons below 4,000 feet (1,212
m) in elevation. Sites range from thick stands of woody shrubs with
little barren ground to widely spaced desert scrubs. Soils are typically
sandy [11,12].
Common plant associates of desert apricot include chaparral currant
(Ribes malvaceum), Our Lord's candle (Yucca whipplei), California
juniper (Juniperus californica), desert-willow (Chilopsis linearis),
buckhorn cholla (Opuntia acanthocarpa), and hedgehog cactus (Echinocerus
engelmannii) [12].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
Desert apricot flowers from February to March [6,7].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Prunus fremontii | Desert Apricot
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
Desert apricot sprouts vigorously from the root crown following top-kill
by fire [11,12].
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
Tall shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Prunus fremontii | Desert Apricot
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Desert apricot is top-killed by fire [11,12].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
Desert apricot sprouted vigorously from the root crown following a fire
in California's Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. More than 75 percent of
the prefire population sprouted within 7 months of the fire. After
1 year, there were an average of 90 plants per acre (40 plants/ha) [12].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
NO-ENTRY
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Prunus fremontii | Desert Apricot
REFERENCES :
1. Bernard, Stephen R.; Brown, Kenneth F. 1977. Distribution of mammals,
reptiles, and amphibians by BLM physiographic regions and A.W. Kuchler's
associations for the eleven western states. Tech. Note 301. Denver, CO:
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. 169 p.
[434]
2. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and
Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905]
3. Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others].
1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range
ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p. [998]
4. Kartesz, John T.; Kartesz, Rosemarie. 1980. A synonymized checklist of
the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. Volume
II: The biota of North America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North
Carolina Press; in confederation with Anne H. Lindsey and C. Richie
Bell, North Carolina Botanical Garden. 500 p. [6954]
5. Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation
of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York:
American Geographical Society. 77 p. [1384]
6. Munz, Philip A. 1973. A California flora and supplement. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press. 1905 p. [6155]
7. Munz, Philip A. 1974. A flora of southern California. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press. 1086 p. [4924]
8. Pase, Charles P.; Brown, David E. 1982. California coastalscrub. In:
Brown, David E., ed. Biotic communities of the American
Southwest--United States and Mexico. Desert Plants. 4(1-4): 86-90.
[1825]
8. Pemberton, Robert W. 1988. The abundance of plants bearing extrafloral
nectaries in Colorado and Mojave Desert communities of southern
California. Madrono. 35(3): 238-246. [6163]
9. Raunkiaer, C. 1934. The life forms of plants and statistical plant
geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 632 p. [2843]
10. Stickney, Peter F. 1989. Seral origin of species originating in northern
Rocky Mountain forests. Unpublished draft on file at: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire
Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; RWU 4403 files. 7 p. [20090]
11. Tratz, Wallace M.; Vogl, Richard J. 1977. Postfire vegetational
recovery, productivity, and herbivore utilization of a chaparral-desert
ecotone. In: Mooney, Harold A.; Conrad, C. Eugene, technical
coordinators. Proceeedings of the symp. on the environmental
consequences of fire & fuel management in Mediterranean ecosystems; 1977
August 1-5; Palo Alto, CA. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-3. Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 426-430. [4873]
12. Tratz, Wallace Michael. 1978. Postfire vegetational recovery,
productivity, and herbivore utilization of a chaparral-desert ecotone.
Los Angeles, CA: California State University. 133 p. Thesis. [5495]
13. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1982.
National list of scientific plant names. Vol. 1. List of plant names.
SCS-TP-159. Washington, DC. 416 p. [11573]
14. Wisdom, Charles S.; Gonzalez-Coloma, Azucena; Rundel, Philip W. 1987.
Phytochemical constituents in a Sonoran Desert plant community. In:
Provenza, Frederick D.; Flinders, Jerran T.; McArthur, E. Durant,
compilers. Proceedings--symposium on plant-herbivore interactions; 1985
August 7-9; Snowbird, UT. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-222. Ogden, UT: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research
Station: 84-87. [7401]
Index
Related categories for Species: Prunus fremontii
| Desert Apricot
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