How do you recognise Flowering almond (Prunus triloba)?

Leaf

Wilhelm Zimmerling PAR, Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Flowering almond

Prunus triloba Lindl.

Also known as: Flowering plum

Family: Rosaceae

2 to 3 m tall

Sunny borders and beds, ordinary well-drained soil

Flowering: March – April, before the leaves open

Full sun

Hardy to about -25°C

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

Even before the leaves open, each of its twigs turns into a continuous line of small, double, rose-like pink flowers — one of the most photographed shrubs of spring.

🍃 Leaves

Deciduous, ovate, often three-lobed (hence the name triloba), mid-green, toothed

🌸 Flowers

Bright pink, double in the most common cultivars, completely covering the bare twigs

🍎 Fruits

Small downy red drupes, rarely produced by the sterile double forms

🪵 Bark

Reddish-brown, slender, upright twigs

🗺️ Distribution

Native to China; grown in Europe as an ornamental spring shrub since the 19th century

🐝 Value for pollinators

Early flowering useful to the first bees, although the double forms produce less pollen

✂️ Horticultural uses

Planted for its spectacular early pink flowering, often as a specimen or along a sunny wall

⚠️ Possible toxicity

Like other Prunus, the kernels inside the stones of the drupes (rarely produced by the double forms) contain cyanogenic compounds (amygdalin) and must not be eaten.

🌱 Known cultivars

'Multiplex'

The form 'Multiplex', almost the only one sold, produces fully double pink flowers resembling small roses, far denser and more spectacular than the single five-petalled flowers of the wild species.

🌿 Other Rosaceae to discover

ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.

🌱 This database is constantly evolving — species and information are added and corrected regularly. Spotted a mistake? Report it below.