Prunus andersonii

Desert peach

Family: Rosaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Desert peach is a California native shrub found on the eastern Sierra Nevada slopes, Great Basin, and Desert Mountains in rocky slopes, scrub, and pinyon-juniper woodland at elevations of 900 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces dark pink to nearly white flowers 8 to 11 millimeters long in small clusters. Growing as a much-branched, thorny shrub less than 3 meters tall with dense branching, it develops a distinctive compact form. Its deciduous leaves are small and narrow, typically 9 to 30 millimeters long, elliptic to oblanceolate with finely serrated edges and a long-tapered base. The fruit develops as a small 10 to 18 millimeter obovoid or nearly spherical drupe, turning green-yellow to red-orange when mature.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, flats, scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 900-2600 m

Bioregions: SNH (e slope), GB, DMtns

California counties: Lassen, Kern, Mono, Inyo, Modoc, Plumas, El Dorado, Alpine, Placer, Sierra, Nevada, Tulare, Lake, Amador, San Bernardino

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.