Flowering patches of the plant on the rocky slopes, sometimes still snow-clad, are striking to climbers.

The leaves are ovate, with serrate margins, tomentose with white down on undersurface, glabrous above.

The flowers are an unusual light rose color, coming out in April–May, solitary or in pairs, nearly sessile, with a tubular calyx.

[5] The name Prunus prostrata was assigned by Jacques Labillardière, the French botanist, in Icones plantarum Syriae rariorum,[6] published on his return from a plant-hunting expedition to the Middle East.

Prostrata means "lying on the ground", referring to the plant's ground-hugging propensity, a mechanical necessity at high elevation.