Amygdaloideae - Taxonomic History

Taxonomic History

The name Prunoideae is sometimes used, but is incorrect. The 1835 publication of that name by Gilbert Thomas Burnett (Burnett) is invalid because it lacks a description (or diagnosis or reference to an earlier description or diagnosis). Paul Fedorowitsch Horaninow (Horan.) published the name in 1847, but Amygdaloideae, published in 1832 by George Arnott Walker Arnott, has priority and is therefore the correct name.

The taxonomy of this group of plants within the Rosaceae has recently been unclear. In 2001 it was reported that Amygdaloideae sensu stricto consists of two distinct genetic groups or "clades", Prunus–Maddenia and Exochorda–Oemleria–Prinsepia. Further refinement shows that Exochorda–Oemleria–Prinsepia is somewhat separate from Prunus–Maddenia–Pygeum, and that the traditional subfamilies Maloideae and Spiraeoideae must be included in Amygdaloideae if a paraphyletic group is to be avoided. With this classification the genus Prunus is considered to include Armeniaca, Cerasus, Amygdalus, Padus, Laurocerasus, Pygeum, and Maddenia.

Robert Frost alluded to the merging of Amygdalaceae into Rosaceae in his poem The Rose Family, when he wrote "The rose is a rose and was always a rose / But the theory now goes that the apple's a rose, / and the pear is, and so's the plum, I suppose." In the next line he wrote, "The dear only knows what will next prove a rose." This referred to shifting botanical opinion which had recently reunited Amygdalaceae, Spiraeaceae, and Malaceae into Rosaceae (which matches de Jussieu's 1789 classification).