In message , K
writes
" writes
On Jun 3, 11:09 pm, Frank Booth Snr wrote:
Bob Hobden wrote:
"Frank Booth Snr" wrote ...

This sprouted from a stone in early spring. I thought it was an apricot
since I chucked the stones from eaten fruit into a trough last year. But
looking at the leaves, I'm not so sure. Looks more like a cherry. Any
ideas please?

*http://tinyurl.com/2jmckn*

That looks like leaves of the large Apricot tree on the next allotment to
mine.

Thanks everyone. Looked at some leaf images online and together with
your opinions it seems fairly conclusive

It's just as well that Kay and Bob were around, though I did warn you
that I knew nothing about trees. However, I have learnt something
too, I brough it a leaf from the cherry and a leaf from a damson to
compare with the picture, and of course, I can now see the
difference. However, it is very like the damson leaf, are damsons the
same family?

Grin Most of the fruit we grow in the UK is the same family - they
are all in the rose family :-)

Rose family includes apples, pears, plums, damsons, apricots, medlars,
blackberries, raspberries, strawberries etc (as well as lots of our
ornamentals and wild flowers).

The key thing to look at is the flower - 5 petals, all separated at the
base (and other characteristics which Stewart will be able to tell you
but I can't) - if you look at a few, you will see the basic similarity.
And that the flower is very different from redcurrants, gooseberries,
rhubarb.

I nearly missed my name being invoked, between being away for a few
days, and not reading every thread on the froup.

You're perhaps overconfident in my knowledge. However ...

It's hard to find characters that apply universally within big groups of
plants such as Rosaceae (for example, neglecting double flowered plants,
Potentilla erecta has 4 petals, Potentilla erecta 4 or 5, and Dryas
octapetala 8). However in the flowers of rosaceous plants usually have a
hypanthium, a disclike structure to the edge of which the petals and
stamens are attached (unlike, for example, mallows, where the they are
attached directly to the flower stalk). Stace also mentions that the
sepals are commonly attached to the hypanthium as well, and that there
are 5 sepals, also separated at the base. The ovary is often inferior -
hence the remains of the calyx found at end of the fruit opposite to the
stalk is roses, and in the subfamily Maloideae (apples, pears, thorns,
firethorns, rowans, cotoneasters, medlars, etc), and perhaps others.
Each carpel has a separate style, so there are usually multiple styles,
but Prunus has reduced the number of carpels to 1.

But within the Rose family, there are a large number of genera,
including Malus = apples and crab apples, Pyrus = pears, Rubus =
raspberries, blackberries etc,

And in particular, Prunus includes plums, damsons, greengages,
bullaces, cherry plums, cherries, sloes, apricot and peach. All things
with a stone. So you were right in spotting that similarity.

Also cherry laurels and Portuguese laurels.

But almond is Amygdala - don't know why, because the fruit is very
peach-like - help, someone?

Almond is usually Prunus dulcis. Anybody who chops Prunus into pieces is
likely is likely to put peaches and apricots in Amygdalus with almonds.

(That's the trouble with plants. The more you learn, the more questions
you find to ask)


--
Stewart Robert Hinsley