96 PLUM FAMILY 



PLUM FAMILY (Amygdalaceae) 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate. Flowers small, white or 

 whitish. Petals 5. Fruit a drupe, seed solitary. 



Gopher Apple, or Ground Oak, and Cocoa Plum (Genus 



Chrysohalanus) 



The gopher apple, a dwarf relative of the plums and 

 cherries, is a common shrubby plant of dry places where, 

 spreading by underground stems, it forms miniature 

 thickets, seldom a foot in height. The leaves so much 

 resemble those of the narrow-leaved oaks that until the 

 shrubs are in bloom they are sometimes mistaken for young 

 oaks. The slightly pulpy fruit, about an inch long, is 

 edible, though scarcely desirable. 



The larger cocoa plum of the same genus is a handsome, 

 glossy-leaved shrub or small tree of southern Florida. The 

 insipid plum-shaped fruit is sometimes eaten. 



A peculiarity of the flowers, easily seen through a mag- 

 nifying glass, is that the style does not rise from the top 

 of the seed-vessel but, instead, comes from the base. 



Chrysohalanus ohlongifolius. Gopher apple. Ground oak. 

 Flowers small, whitish, many, in terminal panicles. Stamens 

 many. Shrub 4-18 in. tall. Leaves leathery, shining, oblong, 

 2-5 in. long, sometimes narrowly wedge-shaped. 'Dry soil. 

 Blooming in spring and summer. Fla. to Ga. and Miss. 



Chrysohalanus Icaco. Cocoa plum. Flowers white, small, 

 in few-flowered axillary panicles. Shrub 4-30 ft. tall. Leaves 

 leathery, shining, roundish or broadest at top, 1-3 in. long. 

 Fruit oval or round, 1 in. or more long, yellow or black. 

 Sandy soil. Blooming chiefly in spring and summer. South- 

 ern peninsula Fla. 



Plums and Cherries (Genus Prunus) 



Several wild plums are found in Florida, growing as 

 shrubs or small trees, and bearing many clusters of white 



