Prunus lusitanica Portugal laurel - STANDARD TREE

Prunus

The genus Prunus is quite extensive and, above all, remarkably diverse – it includes around 350 different species, some of which you would hardly place in the same group at first glance. Its representatives occur from Asia through Europe and North Africa to North America. The genus comprises trees and shrubs valued mainly for their abundant and attractive flowering, as well as species with delicious edible fruits, and in this particular case an evergreen species whose persistent foliage becomes especially important during the dormant season, when most other woody plants are leafless. This species is known as cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) and originates from regions around the Black Sea, the Caucasus, and northern Turkey, where it grows in submontane forests and on moist, shaded slopes. Its glossy, leathery leaves resemble those of true laurel, and this similarity that gave rise to its name – lauro‑cerasus, meaning “laurel cherry.” It reached Europe as early as the 16th century and, thanks to its frost hardiness, is today one of the most important evergreen woody plants even in Central European climate.

Prunus lusitanica, commonly called Portugal laurel, takes its name from Lusitania, the ancient Roman designation for the territory of present‑day Portugal. It is an exclusively European species; its natural occurrence tied to the Atlantic slopes of the western Mediterranean islands and coasts. The first comprehensive description appears with Johann Jacob Dillenius (1684–1747) in Hortus Elthamensis (1732), where he mapped and illustrated the rare and cultivated plants grown in the garden of James Sherard (1666–1738) at Eltham, an English apothecary and enthusiastic amateur botanist and collector. However, older records show that it has been deliberately grown in gardens as an ornamental and useful shrub at least since 1648. It should be added that it took a long time before the species was clearly distinguished – it was often confused with common cherry laurel. Thanks to its hardiness, exceptional elegance and longevity it soon became an equal partner to those laurels in evergreen plantings. While you will often meet it in gardens today, in the wild it is rather scarce – wild stands are scattered in isolated pockets, they carry distinct genetic value and in some places are subject to local protection.