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Prunus fasciculata
Also called Desert Peach
Desert almond is a spiny, deciduous desert shrub of the western deserts of North America, producing small wild almonds that are too high in cyanide to eat. It is not cultivated, so care advice here is general guidance for a hardy dryland shrub.
Prunus fasciculata, also known as wild almond, desert almond, or desert peach, is a spiny and woody shrub producing wild almonds that contain too much cyanide to be edible. The plant is native to western deserts of North America.
The species is native to the deserts of Arizona, California, Baja California, Nevada, and Utah. It prefers sandy or rocky soil on dry slopes and washes, usually below 7,000 feet (2,100 m) elevation.
The plant is not cultivated. Some Native Americans in its limited range have traditional ways of using the outer portion of the fruit. The Kawaiisu found the tough twigs useful as drills in starting fires and as the front portion of arrow shafts. The seed contains too much cyanide to be edible, although there is some archaeological evidence that the ancient population of the Mojave Desert pounded the seeds into flour and leached it to make it edible.
Prunus adenopoda · Red stinkwood · Prunus aitchisonii · Alabama cherry · Prunus alaica · Allegheny plum · American plum · Prunus amplifolia · Almond · Desert peach · Chickasaw plum · Prunus annularis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Prunus fasciculata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
