Desert apricot

Photo: Florian Boyd — CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

Survives zone 6 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

The fruit is a marginal food source at best — scanty, semi-dry pulp that's often unpleasantly bitter, only occasionally sweet. Native Americans traditionally processed the kernels, but that took real preparation; modern foragers shouldn't expect a good peach substitute here. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic — raw consumption is inadvisable.

Hardiness

Zone 6–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

June–July

Mature size

Much-branched, thorny shrub, 2–2.5 m (6–8 ft), to 4 m in the wild

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–8.0 (neutral to alkaline)

Environment

Desert

Native range

Southern California (Riverside and San Diego counties) and Baja California.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Slow

Spacing

300 cm (118 in) apart — about 9 m² (97 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, small, rounded to broadly ovate, 1–2.5 cm, thick and grey-green — reduced in size against desert heat, and on stiff spine-tipped branchlets.

Root system

Deep and drought-adapted, reaching for moisture in desert washes and rocky canyons; established plants resent disturbance and transplant poorly.

Fruit description

Yellowish, ellipsoid, 8–15 mm, leathery to dry flesh

Propagation

Seed (2–3 months cold stratification), half-ripe cuttings with a heel in midsummer, or layering in spring.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.