Prunus lusitanica
Common names
Portugese laurel
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
White
Detailed description
Large evergreen tree to 7 m high. Leaves more or less elliptic 70-140 by 25-60 mm, and on short petioles 15-25 mm long, more or less purplish. Leaves glossy above and below, with slightly impressed veins above, leaf margins finely toothed. Inflorescence a fairly dense raceme of 47-77 white flowers. Fruit 10-12 mm long, ovoid, smooth glossy purplish black.
Similar taxa
With P. laurocerasus, P. lusitanica is in the sub genus Laurocerasus (Cherry Laurels) these are distinguished from other prunus species by the evergreen leaves and pedicellate flowers. P lusitanica can be distinguished from P. laurocerasus by the crenate-serrate leaf margin, more or less purplish petioles and the leaves usually smaller than the racemes.
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Rosaceae
Ecology
Flowering
November, December
Fruiting
March-May
Year naturalised
1988
Origin
Spain, Portugal, Azores
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
Young plants are shade tolerant.
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Reproduces by seed. Seed are spread by birds (Webb et al 1988).
Other information
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
PRULUS