Manchurian apricot

Family Rosaceae. Grows in groups or singly on dry steep south-facing slopes, in oak woods of Primorsky Krai, the northern part of Korea and northeastern China.

Anthropogenically regressive, restorative, light-loving xeromesophyte; mesotherm; mesotroph; entomophilous; an edificator of independent plant communities. Widely cultivated both in botanical institution collections and in urban landscaping across Europe, Central Asia, Siberia, East Asia, and North America.

Deciduous tree 10–15 m tall, with a trunk diameter up to 45 cm, with a spreading, airy crown. Bark on the trunks dark gray, deeply fissured, resembling velvet bark. Young shoots green or reddish-brown, shiny. Leaves 5–12 cm long, from lanceolate-ovate to ovate or broadly ovate, considerably larger on vigorous shoots than on fruiting shoots, glabrous, long-acuminate, with coarsely double-serrate margins. In spring they are light green, in summer green, lighter green beneath, in autumn vermilion-red, persisting on the branches until deep frosts. Flowers large, pale pink or pink, solitary or in clusters on short pedicels. Flowering lasts 10–11 days. Fruits up to 2.5 cm, orange-yellow, pubescent, forming a beautiful contrast with the dark foliage.