Prunus × cistena
Common name: 
Purpleleaf Sandcherry
Redleaf Sandcherry
Cistena Sandcherry
Cistena Plum
Pronunciation: 
PROO-nus sis-TE-na
Family: 
Rosaceae
Genus: 
Prunus
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Deciduous shrub, upright, to 7-10 ft (2-3 m) tall, somewhat less of a spread, slow growing.  Leaves reddish purple, color maintained through the summer, lanceolate-obovate, 3-6 cm long, serrate, glossy above, midrib somewhat pubescent below, petiole 1-1.5 cm long.  Flowers are single, pink (petals actually are more or less white, but the purplish center of the flower gives an overall light pink effect), fragrant, appear after the leaves in late spring.  Fruit blackish purple.
  • Sun.    
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 3      Developed by N. E. Hansen of South Dakota State University in about 1910; the result of a cross of P. cerasifera ‘Atropurpurea’ × P. pumila.
  • cistena: word for baby in the Sioux language.
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  • plant habit, flowering

    plant habit, flowering

  • flowering branches

    flowering branches

  • young leaves

    young leaves

  • plant habit, after flowering

    plant habit, after flowering

  • plant habit, larger shrub

    plant habit, larger shrub

  • plant habit and bark, winter

    plant habit and bark, winter