Prunus domestica Prunus domestica Prunus domestica (sometimes referred to as "Prunus × domestica") is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. A deciduous tree, it includes many varieties of the fruit trees known as plums in English, though not all plums belong to this species. The greengages and damsons also belong to subspecies of "P. domestica". Its hybrid parentage was believed to be "Prunus spinosa" and "Prunus cerasifera".; however recent cytogenetic evidence seem to implicate 2x, 4x, 6x "P. cerasifera" as the sole wild stock from which the cultivated 6x prunus domestica could have evolved. This is the most commonly
Prunus avium parent species of "Prunus cerasus" (sour cherry), by way of ancient crosses between it and "Prunus fruticosa" (dwarf cherry) in the areas where the two species overlap. All three species can breed with one another. "Prunus cerasus" is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised. Pliny distinguishes between "Prunus", the plum fruit, and "Cerasus", the cherry fruit. Already in Pliny quite a number of cultivars are cited, some possibly species or varieties, Aproniana, Lutatia, Caeciliana, and so on. Pliny grades them by flavour, including dulcis ("sweet") and acer ("sharp"). and goes so far