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{{italic title}}
{{Taxobox
| name = ''Prunus fruticosa''<br>European dwarf cherry
| image = Prunus fruticosa 2.jpg
| image_caption = ''P. fruticosa flowers''
|regnum = [[Plant]]ae
|unranked_divisio = [[Angiosperms]]
|unranked_classis = [[Eudicots]]
|unranked_ordo = [[Rosids]]
| ordo = [[Rosales]]
| familia = [[Rosaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Prunus]]''
| subgenus = ''[[Prunus subgenus Cerasus|Cerasus]]''
| species = '''''P. fruticosa'''''
| binomial = ''Prunus fruticosa''
| binomial_authority = [[Peter Simon Pallas|Pall.]]
|synonyms =
*''Cerasus fruticosa'' <small>(Pall.) Woronow</small>
|synonyms_ref = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/rjp-5896|title=The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species |accessdate=January 27, 2014}}</ref>
}}
'''''Prunus fruticosa''''', the '''European dwarf cherry''',<ref>{{PLANTS|id=PRFR2|taxon=Prunus fruticosa|accessdate=14 October 2015}}</ref> or '''dwarf cherry''', '''Mongolian cherry''' or '''steppe cherry''' is a [[deciduous]], [[xerophyte|xerophytic]], winter-hardy, cherry-bearing [[shrub]]. It is also called '''ground cherry''' and '''European ground cherry''', but is not to be confused with plants in the distinct "Groundcherry" genus of ''[[Physalis]]''.

''Prunus fruticosa'' is native to [[Ciscaucasia]], western [[Siberia]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Xinjiang]] China, western [[Russia]], [[Ukraine]], [[Poland]], [[Czech Republic]], [[Germany]], [[Belarus]], [[Moldova]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Romania]], [[Hungary]], [[Serbia]], [[Austria]], and [[Italy]].
<ref name=grinpf>{{cite web | title=Prunus fruticosa Pall. | work=Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) Taxonomy for Plants | author=U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) | url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?29899 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first=John Claudius | last=Loudon | title=Arboretum Et Fruticetum Britannicum: Or, The Trees and Shrubs of Britain, ... | publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans | location=London | year=1838 |page=702 }} Under C. chamaecerasus. Downloadable Google Books.</ref><ref>{{cite book | first=L.L. | last=Bailey | authorlink=Liberty Hyde Bailey | title=The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture | publisher=The Macmillan Company | location=New York | year=1916 |page=2386 | volume=V }}</ref><ref name=hortprev>{{Cite book | first=A.D. | last=Dzhangaliev | first2=T.N. | last2=Salova | first3=P.M. | last3=Turekhanova | editor-last=Janick | editor-first=Jules
| contribution=The Wild Fruit and Nut Plants of Kazakhstan | contribution-url=http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/81/04712196/0471219681-1.pdf | title=Horticultural Previews | year=2003 | pages=305–371 | place=
| publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | isbn=0-471-21968-1 }}</ref>

==Description==
As a shrub ''Prunus fruticosa'' grows {{convert|1|-|2|m|ft}} high and as wide, in almost any soil, but best in loamy soil, spreading via [[basal shoot|sucker]]s. Roots are abundant. The plant requires full sun, it is a [[steppe]] rather than a [[forest]] plant, although it does form thickets at the edges of open forest.

The [[bark]] is dark brown with yellow [[lenticel]]s. The [[leaf|leaves]] are oblanceolate to obovate, about 12 mm by 6 mm, with acumenate apex, [[glabrous]] above, thick, serrated with crenate margin, dark green, yellow in autumn, with a short [[petiole (botany)|petiole]].

The [[flower]]s are white [[hermaphroditic]] blossoms in leafy [[bract]]s located 2-4 each on short [[Peduncle (botany)|peduncle]]s in [[Sessility (botany)|sessile]] [[umbel]]s. They are pollinated by [[bee]]s. In the Northern Hemisphere, the plant flowers in May. The [[fruit]] is light to dark red, globose to pyriform, about 8–25 mm in diameter, ripening in August. The taste is sour-sweet, or tart.

==Uses==
As a sour tasting cherry, the fruit is used in cooking, and for jams and jellies. It has medicinal uses as an [[astringent]].<ref>''Mongolian Cherry'' under External links below.</ref> The flowers are its basis of bee-keeping honey plant.

[[Image:Prunus fruticosa 1.jpg|thumb|left|325px|''Prunus fruticosa'' planted for soil stabilization in an open habitat.]]

===Cultivation===
''Prunus fruticosa'' is planted in [[hedgerow]]s as an [[ornamental plant]] privacy screen and windbreak, and as a host plant for bees and other beneficial insects and birds. The shrub's network of penetrating roots are useful for soil stabilization in designed landscapes and [[Ecological restoration|habitat restoration]] projects.

The hardiness of ''Prunus fruticosa'' is a desirable quality in grafting and production of [[horticulture|horticultural]] [[cultivar]]s. It is grafted to ''[[Prunus avium]]'' 'tree' rootstock, forming rounded top trees.<ref name=hortprev/>

==Classification==
;Linnaeus
Linnaeus included this species in his ''Species Plantarum'', referencing the ''Pinax'' of [[Gaspard Bauhin]], to whom he gives credit as "Bauh. pin. 450."<ref>{{cite book | first=Caroli | last=Linnaei | authorlink=Linnaeus | title=Species Plantarum | publisher=Impensis Laurentii Salvii | location=Holmiae | year=1753 |page=474 | url=http://www.botanicus.org/title.aspx?bibid=b12069590 }}</ref> The name assigned by Linnaeus is ''Prunus cerasus pumila'', where ''pumila'' means "dwarf" (a rare word in Latin) and must come from Bauhin. He regards the shub as a variety of ''[[Prunus cerasus]]'', the sour cherry.

;Pallas
It was first authoritatively defined by [[Peter Simon Pallas]], the German naturalist invited by [[Catherine the Great]] to work in [[St. Petersburg]]. His unfinished ''Flora Rossica'', a description of all the plants in the [[Russia]]n Empire, dedicates one page to Prunus fruticosa, a shrub found ''in campis Isetensibus'', "in the plains of the [[Iset River|Iset]];" that is, the [[Siberia]]n [[steppe]].<ref>{{cite book | first=P.S. | last=Pallas | title=Flora Rossica Edita Iussu et Auspiciis Augustissimae Rossorum Imperatricis Catharinae II Magnae, Piae, Felicis, Patriae Matris | publisher=E. Typographia Imperiali J.J. Weitbrecht | location=Petropoli | date=MDCCLXXXIV |page=19 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k97364k.pagination}} The title at the top of the page bears the cryptic notation "Tab. VIII. B."</ref> He states the Linnaean synonym, giving the same reference to Bauhin, but makes the variety into a species, Pr. fruticosa. The last paragraph of Page 19 states his reasons for the classification, which have nothing to do with the name, but are in true Linnaean cryptic form, in this case a [[pun]].

The two Latin words of the pun are ''fructus'' or ''frux'', from ''fruor'', "enjoy" - a fruit is a result enjoyed - and ''frutex'', "shrub", adjective ''fruticosus'', "bushy", from a totally different root. Prunus is a grammatical feminine, so Prunus fruticosa agrees in gender. However, Pallas says ''Haec mihi tantum fructibus suis innotuit, qui distinctam itidem speciem indicare videntur'', "It came to my attention at last because of its fruit, which repeatedly seemed to indicate a distinct species." The fruit seemed ''fere Pruni forma'', "nearly in the form of Prunus", especially because ''praedita oblongo nucleo'', "furnished with an oblong seed." So, Pallas moved it from Cerasus to Prunus.

;Woronow
In 1925 Georg Gjurij Nikolaewitch Woronow (Voronov), 1874-1931, known botanically as (Ju.N, G., G.N. or GJN) Woronow, made an unsuccessful effort to retain Cerasus as a genus name and move fruticosa to it, creating another synonym, Cerasus fruticosa.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Trudy po Prikladnoi Botanike, Genetikei Selektsii | volume=14 | issue=3 | year=1925 |page=52 }} Known botanically as Trudy Prikl. Bot. Selekc., translated as ''Bulletin of Applied Botany, of Genetics, and Plant-breeding.''</ref>

==Hybridisation and genetic erosion==
''Prunus fruticosa'' is thought to be one of the parent species of ''[[Prunus cerasus]]'' (the Sour Cherry) by way of ancient crosses between it and ''[[Prunus avium]]'' (Wild/Sweet Cherry) in the areas where the two species overlap. Both species can interbreed with each other as well as with ''Prunus cerasus''.
''Prunus cerasus'' is now a species in its own right having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stocks | first=Christopher | title=Britain’s forgotten fruits | journal=Flora | volume=1 | pages=1–200 | year=2009 | url= }}</ref>

A recent study of native ''Prunus fruticosa'' stands in northern [[Poland]] finds it is disappearing there by "genetic erosion" or "disappearance of typical morphological characters". It hybridizes naturally with ''Prunus cerasus'' to form ''Prunus'' × ''eminens'',<ref>{{cite web | title=''Prunus fruticosa'' Pall. | work=Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) Taxonomy for Plants | author=U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?29894 }}</ref> and with ''Prunus avium'' to form ''Prunus'' × ''stacei''.

Those forest plants are brought into closer contact with ''Prunus fruticosa'' by the modern disappearance of "contemporaneous sites of the steppe relics" once common in northern Poland, due to forest management since the 18th century, and the planting of stands of ''Prunus cerasus'', which are more prolific in pollen.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boratyński | first=Adam |author2=Lewandowska, Amelia |author3=Ratyńska, Halina | title=''Cerasus fruticosa'' Pall. (Rosaceae) in the region of Kujavia and South Pomerania (N Poland) | journal=Dendrobiology | volume=49 | pages=3–13 | year=2003 | url=ftp://www.idpan.poznan.pl/49_3_13.pdf }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}


==External links==
{{Commons|Prunus fruticosa}}
{{Wikispecies|Prunus fruticosa}}
* {{cite web | title=''' ''Prunus fruticosa'' ''' (Mongolian Cherry) | publisher=North Dakota State University (NDSU) | format=pdf | url=http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/trees/handbook/th-3-9.pdf}}

[[Category:Cherries]]
[[Category:Prunus|fruticosa]]
[[Category:Flora of Europe]]
[[Category:Flora of Central Asia]]
[[Category:Flora of Xinjiang]]
[[Category:Flora of Siberia]]
[[Category:Flora of Russia]]
[[Category:Flora of Kyrgyzstan]]
[[Category:Flora of Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Flora of Hungary]]
[[Category:Flora of Austria]]
[[Category:Flora of the Czech Republic]]
[[Category:Flora of Poland]]
[[Category:Flora of Germany]]
[[Category:Flora of Italy]]
[[Category:Medicinal plants]]
[[Category:Garden plants of Asia]]
[[Category:Garden plants of Europe]]
[[Category:Shrubs]]

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Trappist the monk: cleanup extra text in page/pages/at/edition parameters; convert some cite journal to cite magazine or news; using AWB