NOT a redbud. I'd say purple leaf sand cherry/prunus cistena, but I'm sure someone more in the know will chime in.

Purpleleaf Plum.

Resin

Resin, so I know next time, what are the identifying differences?

Redbuds have heart-shaped leaves, for starters.

And redbuds have much larger leaves, for another thing. Redbud flowers CAN arise directly from the trunk or branches, plums/cherries usually flower from a small stem.

thanks

I'm going to second that it's Prunus cistena (flowering cherry or sand cherry). It looks exactly like mine, which for me are shrubs but can be trained as a small tree.

It's the same Prunus family as plum trees, but I'm betting on the flowering cherry shrub.

I didn't mean the difference between a redbud and the pictured tree (which was pretty obviously not a redbud), I meant what are the differences between prunus cistena (which I thought it was) and the purple leaf plum.

"The" purpleleaf plum consists of over 50 kinds, including Prunus X cistena. The characteristics vary with the kind. Other common ones are 'Newport', 'Pissardii' and 'Krauter's Vesuvius'.

Prunus is a genus. The family is Rosaceae.

ya i don't see much of a difference between the flowering cherry and the purpleleaf plum, not sure which one it is, as people have said it is both.

Plums have flowers clustered 1-3 together with short stems (think of the short stem on a plum fruit!).

Cherries have flowers clustered 4-10 together with longer stems, or (in the bird cherry group), clustered 10-30 together along a single stem.

{{gwi:357983}}
{{gwi:357985}}
{{gwi:357986}}

Resin

Ah, thank you! That is just the kind of answer I was looking for.

But since Bboy said that sand cherries are actually a variety of purpleleaf plum, does that mean that in this case, the term "cherry" is really just slang and there isn't any significant difference between sand cherries and flowering plums? Pineresin, do those photos of cherry blossoms not apply to sand cherries (in terms of how many blooms you should expect to see in each cluster)?

Checked up - Prunus à cistena is a hybrid between Prunus cerasifera (a plum) and Prunus pumila (a cherry). So it could be called either, I guess.

It is the existence of things like this, that make it impossible to split plums and cherries into two different genera.

Resin

oh so this can be either a purple leaf plum or a purple leaf sand cherry?

"so this can be either a purple leaf plum or a purple leaf sand cherry?"

It's the hybrid between the two of them, so it isn't really either, but half-way between.

Resin

Common names include Cistena plum, Dwarf red sand cherry, Purpleleaf sand cherry, Hansen's purple plum, Purple bush plum, Dwarf purpleleaf plum.

For the record haven't seen the pictures of specimen in question, am assuming identification as Prunus X cistena is correct.