Purpleleaf Sandcherry, Redleaf Sandcherry, Cistena Cherry, Cistens Plum              PROO-nus sis-TE-na

• Deciduous shrub, upright, to 7-10 ft (2-3 m) tall, somewhat less of a spread, slow growing.  Leaves reddish purple, color maintained through the summer, lanceolate-obovate, 3-6 cm long, serrate, glossy above, midrib somewhat pubescent below, petiole 1-1.5 cm long.  Flowers are single, pink (petals actually are more or less white, but the purplish center of the flower gives an overall light pink effect), fragrant, appear after the leaves in late spring.  Fruit blackish purple.
• Sun.    
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3      Developed by N. E. Hansen of South Dakota State University in about 1910; the result of a cross of P. cerasifera ‘Atropurpurea’ × P. pumila.
• cistena: word for baby in the Sioux language.