Mesa Trail - Flower ID?

Yesterday I hiked a few miles along the South Mesa Trail to check out the wildflowers. Not much happening yet, but it was a great day to be out. I did see one beautiful clump of Pasque flowers, but by then the wind was blowing too hard to even attempt a picture.

At the head of the trail, the hillsides were covered with a woody flowering shrub. Most of the blossoms were still closed, but a few were in full display. Can anyone identify this shrub? I can't find it in any of the flower ID books that I have on hand.

Could it be serviceberry? Do you have a more encompassing shot that shows more of the bush?

Sorry, Todd. I took a bunch more closeups, but never backed off for a record shot.

The flowers look similar to wild plum, possibly pin cherry although it's flowers are not as densely packed as this is.

I'm pretty 'species challenged' myself so I can't help you, but that sure is one beautiful bouquet you captured!

Wish I could help you Bill, nut I am terrible at identifying flowers. You might try posting it over in the flora gallery and see if they can help.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I searched for online photos of the suggestions but haven't found a good match so far. The lack of leaves, at this time, doesn't help. So many similar white flowering shrubs to choose from!

I think my best option will be to stop at the El Dorado Canyon visitor's center and check with their staff.

Thanks, John. The backgrounds were all very busy and the white blossoms were getting lost, so I used a black foamboard, and then added a white reflector on the right to open the shadows. The cloud cover helped keeping those whites under control.

I think Paul is right about this being a wild plum (Prunus americana). It has been 10 years since I sold my nursery and I am pretty rusty in this department nowadays......but that would be my best guess.
Bill ~ did you happen to notice if there were any downward pointed spines (thorns) on the branches? If so, that would pretty much confirm it being a wild plum.

I would also suspect a prunus species and the candidates I'd look into are plum, apricot or sand cherry. From the length of the stamens compared to the petals, I'd lean towards apricot. But I'm no expert in this area. See this example which I know to be a flowering apricot.

Mel ~ You are right that it does look like an apricot. The thing is for me....is that it doesn't look like a "wild apricot" and I am suspecting that Bill found this "out in the field" wild. Of course the best way to identify any plant is through its foliage and not its blossoms...so it is hard to tell for sure.

Regardless of whatever species it may belong to - it is a very nice shot
Thanks for posting ..

Bill,

I'm not 100% on it, more like 80% from the shot but I think its a Pin Cherry, need to see the full leaves to be sure, but the choke and the pin cherry are the two white flowering bushes I've ID'd around the Mesa before around this time of year.

Yeah, I got nothin'. But I love the shot!

Rick, no downward pointing spines.

Mel, those flowering apricot blossoms certainly appear to be a very close match.

Apparently choke cherries bloom after the leaves have fully developed. These bushes had all blossoms and NO leaves, except for the green specs you see in the photo.

It appears I'll have to wait for some leaves before settling on an ID.

Wild Plum is my bet. If the buds resembled unpopped/granny popcorn kernels and were a buttery white, then I double my bet. If you're out in dry grassland and the shrub is no taller than 3 ft., then it might be a sand cherry. Definitely not serviceberry. Definitely not chokecherry. The flower shape and arrangement are all wrong for those. My wild plums don't have thorns. Wild plum is one of the few flowering shrubs that blooms before any leaves appear. This is the time of year for the wild plums to just be starting to open up. If you're in a "wild - open space" hillside type trail, I'd triple my bet. Of course, I've never won anything in Vegas, but I'd still make the bet.

Bill ~ I don't think the absence of spines rules out the plum. I had many wild Hawthorn trees on my property back in Indiana that had spines...but the varieties of Hawthorn that I sold at my nursery were "spineless". I use to sell "Hybrid" Cottonwood trees that didn't produce cotton. So I know there are "spineless" plums out there....just didn't figure that there were any spineless ones in the"wild"
Hey....you didn't take this conversational photo at a nursery did you?

Its always possible that because they were near the trailhead that the seed came from human activity. I've seen many an apricot or peach pit around trailheads, and I'm sure the same could be said for cherry and plum. They may in fact not be wild at all, just untended.

But because the tree was described as a bush form, I would lean towards the smaller apricot, choke cherry or pin cherry over plum.

Regardless the sample shot on the black background is quite nice.