# Prunus subg. Cerasus
**Prunus subg. Cerasus** is the subgenus of the genus *Prunus* (family Rosaceae) that contains the true cherries, a group of roughly 50 species of shrubs and trees distributed in temperate and subtropical regions of the [Northern Hemisphere](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-hemisphere), with particular abundance in [East Asia](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-asia).[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) Its members include the sweet cherry (*Prunus avium*), whose drupe is one of the world's most popular fruits, the sour cherry (*[Prunus cerasus](https://www.edgepedia.org/prunus-cerasus)*), and ornamental flowering cherries such as *P. yedoensis* 'Somei-Yoshino', a widely planted garden tree.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Rank and family | Subgenus of *Prunus* L. sensu lato, family Rosaceae; one of three subgenera alongside subg. Padus and subg. Prunus[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) • [2](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jipb.12095) |
| Species count | About 50 species, mainly in temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere, especially East Asia[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) |
| Origin | Eastern Mediterranean–Central Asia, before 11.57 Mya (95% HPD = 5.34–19.1 Mya)[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) |
| Divergence | Split from subg. Prunus at about 21.36 Mya (95% HPD = 13.48–30.92 Mya) in the Miocene[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) |
| Internal structure | Five clades, with *P. mahaleb* as the basal group[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) |
| Diversity in China | 53 species, of which 30 are endemic[3](https://www.ishs.org/ishs-article/1408_4) |
| Economic species | *P. avium* (sweet cherry), *P. cerasus* (sour cherry), *P. pseudocerasus* (Chinese cherry, grown on about 40,000 ha in central and southern China)[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) • [3](https://www.ishs.org/ishs-article/1408_4) |
## Classification
The genus *Prunus* sensu lato, with more than 150 species of shrubs and trees, has a taxonomic history complicated by convergent and parallel evolution of morphological characters.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) • [2](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jipb.12095) The widely accepted mid-twentieth-century treatment by Rehder (1940) recognized five subgenera: *Amygdalus*, *Cerasus*, *Laurocerasus*, *Padus*, and *Prunus*.[4](https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/31120/aradhya1.pdf) Molecular phylogenetics later resolved three main clades with strong support, and Shi and colleagues adopted a broad-sensed genus *Prunus* with three subgenera corresponding to those clades: subgenus Padus, subgenus Cerasus, and subgenus Prunus.[2](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jipb.12095) Under this scheme the dwarf cherries, previously assigned to subgenus Cerasus, were transferred to subgenus Prunus.[2](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jipb.12095)
Morphologically, subg. Cerasus is described as a monophyletic group of true cherries with a single bud.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) Earlier molecular work gave mixed signals: in phylogenies by Bortiri and colleagues, subg. Cerasus was not monophyletic because *P. mahaleb* clustered with subg. Padus, a placement echoing its traditional morphological assignment to subg. Padus on account of its slender pedicels and more numerous flowers; chloroplast-gene studies by Chin and colleagues and a multi-gene analysis by Shi and colleagues confirmed its monophyly.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086)
Within the subgenus, the taxonomic system of Wang (2014) recognized two sections and 12 series.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) A 2023 plastome phylogeny based on 36 chloroplast genomes supports a division into five clades, with *P. mahaleb* as the basal lineage.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) The same study found that *P. campanulata* is genetically distant from *P. cerasoides* and is not recommended for treatment as a variety of the latter, and that *P. subhirtella* was involved in the speciation of *P. yedoensis*.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086)
## Origin and dispersal
Molecular dating using 36 chloroplast genomes places the crown of *Prunus* s.l. at 54.97 Mya (95% HPD = 54.02–55.97 Mya) in the Early Oligocene per the study's narrative, with the crown of the three-subgenus group at 32.13 Mya (95% HPD = 22.25–43.71 Mya) and the split of subg. Cerasus from subg. Prunus at about 21.36 Mya in the Miocene.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) The crown of subg. Cerasus itself is dated to 11.57 Mya (95% HPD = 5.34–19.10 Mya).[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) An independent estimate by Wang and colleagues (2021), based on the pangenome of the Tibetan plum, put the divergence of *Prunus* s.l. at about 27.6 Mya.[5](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086?searchresult=1)
Ancestral-area reconstruction infers an origin in the [Eastern Mediterranean](https://www.edgepedia.org/eastern-mediterranean)–Central Asia, followed by spread into the Qinghai-[Tibetan Plateau](https://www.edgepedia.org/tibetan-plateau) (QTP) and adjacent regions.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) The first dispersal event of modern subg. Cerasus originated by spreading from the QTP outward: it reached North America by way of the Bering Land Bridge and later returned to Europe, a process that ran from the Late Miocene into the Pliocene; by the Pliocene, this had produced the initial distribution pattern seen in cherries today.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) A second dispersal event occurred at the end of the [Quaternary](https://www.edgepedia.org/quaternary) glacial period, and core population diversity flourished radially in separate refugia during the Late Pleistocene.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086)
## Notable species
**Sweet and sour cherries.** *Prunus avium* is described as the most important species of the subgenus in cultivation.[6](https://repositorio.upct.es/bitstreams/44d846a9-3984-49a6-9dbc-76d3159691ee/download) *Prunus cerasus*, the sour or tart cherry, is a tree up to 10 m with ovate-elliptic to obovate leaves 5–9 cm long, flowers in sessile umbels on pedicels 2–3 cm, globose bright red tart fruits 1.5–2 cm across, and a chromosome count of 2n = 32.[7](https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0001016331) Kew's Plants of the World Online records its native range as the Caucasus, with introductions across Europe, western and Central Asia, North America, and elsewhere.[8](https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn%3Alsid%3Aipni.org%3Anames%3A729574-1) Previous taxonomy treated the Central Asian and European *P. fruticosa*, *P. cerasus*, and *P. avium* as close relatives, with *P. cerasus* considered a hybrid of *P. fruticosa* and *P. avium*.[9](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11998463/)
**Ornamental cherries.** Flowering cherries supply major ornamental germplasm; *P. yedoensis* 'Somei-Yoshino' is planted in gardens worldwide for its ornamental properties.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086)
**Chinese diversity.** China holds 53 species of subgenus Cerasus, 30 of them endemic.[3](https://www.ishs.org/ishs-article/1408_4) The Chinese cherry *P. pseudocerasus* matures very early and bears small, juicy fruits; it is grown in central and southern China over about 40,000 hectares.[3](https://www.ishs.org/ishs-article/1408_4)
## Research history
Interspecific relationships within the subgenus were long difficult to resolve because of unrepresentative sampling, insufficient resolution of molecular fragments, frequent interspecific hybridization, and allopolyploid origins.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) Successive studies applied RFLP (Badenes et al. 1995 on *P. avium*; Sauris et al. 2003 distinguishing *P. avium* from *P. cerasus*), random amplified polymorphic DNA (Shimada et al. 2001, which found *P. tomentosa* closer to *Prunus*), and simple sequence repeats (Fu et al. 2018, in which *P. mahaleb* and *P. tomentosa* clustered together).[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) A 2023 study newly sequenced 12 species and combined them with 24 previously published plastomes to reconstruct the subgenus-wide phylogeny and biogeography summarized above.[1](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086) Nuclear phylogenomic work has since resolved the backbone of *Prunus* while finding substantial cytonuclear discordance within subgenera, indicating that chloroplast and nuclear data do not always tell the same story.[10](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33609711/)
## References
1. [Song, Y.-F., Zhang, C., Idrees, M., Yi, X.-G., Wang, X.-R., Li, M. (2023). Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography reveal the origin of cherries (Prunus subg. Cerasus, Rosaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 204(4): 304–315.](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086)
2. [Shi, S., Li, J., Sun, J., Yu, J., Zhou, S. (2013). Phylogeny and Classification of Prunus sensu lato (Rosaceae). Journal of Integrative Plant Biology.](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jipb.12095)
3. [Cherries in China: germplasm, history and current trends. International Society for Horticultural Science.](https://www.ishs.org/ishs-article/1408_4)
4. [Aradhya, M. et al. Genetic and taxonomic studies in Prunus, Scientia Horticulturae (USDA).](https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/31120/aradhya1.pdf)
5. [Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography reveal the origin of cherries (search-result view citing Wang et al. 2021).](https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/204/4/304/7334086?searchresult=1)
6. [Agronomic and physiological basis for sweet cherry cultivation, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena repository.](https://repositorio.upct.es/bitstreams/44d846a9-3984-49a6-9dbc-76d3159691ee/download)
7. [Prunus cerasus L., World Flora Online.](https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0001016331)
8. [Prunus cerasus L., Plants of the World Online, Kew Science.](https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn%3Alsid%3Aipni.org%3Anames%3A729574-1)
9. [Creating an effective DNA identification system for discriminating cherries (Prunus subgenus Cerasus), PMC.](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11998463/)
10. [A phylogenomic approach resolves the backbone of Prunus (Rosaceae) and identifies signals of hybridization and allopolyploidy, PubMed.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33609711/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Plants and algae › Seed plants › Other flowering plants › Rosids › Rosales, Fagales, and Cucurbitales*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license