Prunus fasciculata

Common Names: Wild Almond, Desert Almond, Desert Peach
Synonyms:
Family: Rosaceae (Rose)
Genus Information:

Desert Almond

Prunus fasciculata grows up to 2 meters (6+1⁄2 feet) high, exceptionally to 3 metres (10 ft), with many horizontal (divaricate) branches, generally with thorns (spinescent), often in thickets. The bark is gray and without hairs (glabrous). The leaves are 5–20 millimetres (1⁄4–3⁄4 inch) long, narrow (linear), with a broad, flatten tip that tapers to a narrow base, (spatulate, oblanceolate), arranged on very short leaf stem (petiole) like bundles of needles (fascicles). Sepals are hairless and without lobes or teeth. The flowers are small and white with 3-mm petals, occurring either solitary or in fascicles and are without a petal stem (subsessile) growing from the leaf axils. They are dioecious. Male flowers have 10–15 stamens; female, one or more pistils.

The wild almonds were considered a delicacy by Native Americans and the Cahuilla in particular. 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.