Amygdaloideae

Amygdaloideae (incorrectly called Prunoideae) is a subfamily within the flowering plant family Rosaceae. It was formerly considered by some authors^[1] to be separate from Rosaceae, and the family names Prunaceae and Amygdalaceae have been used. Commercially, important members of the Amygdaloideae include plum, cherry, apricot, peach, and almond. The fruit of these plants are known as stone fruit (a drupe), as each fruit contains a hard shell (the endocarp) called a stone or pit, which contains the single seed.

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of this group of plants within the Rosaceae has recently been unclear. In 2001 it was reported^[2] that Amygdaloideae consists of two distinct genetic groups or "clades", Prunus–Maddenia and Exochorda–Oemleria–Prinsepia. Further refinement^[3] shows that Exochorda–Oemleria–Prinsepia is somewhat separate from Prunus–Maddenia–Pygeum, and that the traditional subfamilies Maloideae and Spiraeoideae must be included in Amygdaloideae if a paraphyletic group is to be avoided. With this classification the genus Prunus is considered to include Armeniaca, Cerasus, Amygdalus, Padus, Laurocerasus, Pygeum, and Maddenia. Other, non-cladist taxonomists consider the Amygdaloideae to be a single tribe, or else three separate tribes.

Robert Frost alluded to the merging of Amygdalaceae into Rosaceae in his poem The Rose Family,^[4] when he wrote "The rose is a rose and was always a rose / But the theory now goes that the apple's a rose, / and the pear is, and so's the plum, I suppose." In the next line he wrote, "The dear [i.e., "the dear Lord", euphemized] only knows what will next prove a rose." This referred to shifting botanical opinion which had recently^[5] reunited Amygdalaceae, Spiraeaceae, and Malaceae into Rosaceae (which matches de Jussieu's 1789 classification).^[6]

References