Prunus spinosa the more shrubby habit with stiffer, wider-angled branches of "P. spinosa"; in summer by the relatively narrower leaves of "P. spinosa", more than twice as long as broad; and in autumn by the colour of the fruit skin purplish black in "P. spinosa" and yellow or red in "P. cerasifera". "Prunus spinosa" has a tetraploid (2"n"=4"x"=32) set of chromosomes. The specific name "" is a Latin term indicating the pointed and thornlike spur shoots characteristic of this species. The common name "" is due to the thorny nature of the shrub, and its very dark bark. The word commonly used
Prunus tangutica fruit are green when unripe and purplishred when ripe. The fruits' mesocarps (fleshy exterior) splits when ripe, which led to it being classified as an almond for over a century, with the exception of Kovalev & Kostina in 1935, who assigned it to "Persica". Prunus tangutica Prunus tangutica () is a species of wild peach native to China. Based on its fruit traits it had been considered a wild almond, but genetic and morphological studies have shown that it is more closely related to "Prunus persica", the cultivated peach, with its closest relative being "Prunus mongolica". It is a very