Maddenia Hook. fil. & Thomson (1854), in the family Rosaceae subfamily Prunoideae, contains 4 or 5 species in eastern Asia.

Description Shrubs to 6m. The leaves are alternate, deciduous, toothed, and strongly parallel-veined, whitish or hairy beneath. The flowers are small, in short spikes, produced in early spring before the leaves, the males and females usually on separate plants. Sepals 10, unequal, in 2 series; petals very small or absent. Stamens many. Ovary superior. Carpel 1, with 1 ovule; style 1. Pollination is presumed to be by insects. The fruits are solitary, black drupes around 9mm long, with 1 large stone.

Key Recognition Features The small flowers without petals produced before the strongly veined and toothed leaves.

Evolution and Relationships Maddenia is close to Prunus, but differs in having 10 sepals and no petals.

Ecology and Geography In mountain scrub in the Himalayas and western China.

Comment Sometimes grown as a curiosity in collections. The genus is named after Colonel Edward Madden, (1805–56), of the Bengal Artillery, who sent seed collected in the high Himalayas between 1841 and 1849 to the botanical garden at Glasnevin in Dublin, Ireland; from them several now-familar plants, including Cardiocrinum giganteum were introduced to cultivation.
Maddenia hypoleuca Koehne (Rosaceae) Madden Cherry Native of W. Hubei at 1200-1500 m flowering in April and May. Open deciduous dioecious shrub, 2-6 m tall. Flowers appearing with the leaves, with no petals, but 25-40 stamens, 6 mm long, in the male flower, one style in the female. Plum-like fruit, black elliptical, 8 mm long. Any good soil; sun. Hardy to -15°C. Early spring. Z5.