Wild Plum - North America Native Tree

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Prunus Americana

WILD PLUM

DESCRIPTION: The genus prunus includes two of our most ornamental groups of native trees: cherries and plums. Most plums are quite similar, and none is more spectacular in bloom nor more widespread in the landscape than the common wild plum, also known as the American plum. A thicket-forming small tree in the wild, similar to the wild crabapples (Malus), wild plum can be domesticated into a splendid flowering specimen for the ornamental garden.

When the competition of its own suckers is eliminated, wild plum develops into a fruit tree of substantial proportions. The U.S. national champion in Gadsden County, Florida, is 49 feet (14.4 m) tall with a trunk 1 foot (30 cm) thick. Several closely related species become at least as large, although most prefer to exist as dense thickets of small stems unless they are trained into tree form.

LEAVES: Wild plum leaves closely resemble those of their domesticated cousins. They are usually recurved and keeled down the midrib, reaching up to 5 inches (12.5 cm) long. They have toothed margins and rough, rugose surfaces with deeply set veins. Leaves of this species emerge after the flowers, while those of most other plum species develop concurrently with the flowers. If the leaves survive early defoliation or disfigurement by fungus diseases, they can exhibit a nice yellow-orange fall color, with colored leaves and green leaves often mixing on the same tree like a Monet painting.

FLOWERS AND FRUIT: Plum flowers, especially those of wild plum, rival those of any popular exotic flowering trees. Wild plums flowers are pure white, emerging from a showy red calyx that sets them off sharply. They bloom early, at the same time as the exotic ornamental pears (Pyrus calleryana), and are every bit their equal.

The plum flowers appear in clusters and reach their peak as redbud (Cercis Canadensis) begins to bloom, making a rich color sequence along roadsides and fence rows. Many people remark on the beautiful combination of redbud flowers with dogwood (Cornus florida) flowers, which appear later, but the earlier combination of plum and redbud is just as spectacular. Plum bark is curly and dark, often nearly black on some species, and the contrast of the snowy flower clusters against such bark makes them seem to glow.

The tangy fruit that develop later in summer are a colorful plum-red with yellow flesh and grow to about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. You would expect plum fruits to be a valuable source of food for birds, but their usefulness is limited mostly to foxes and other mammals, including humans. Woodpeckers, jays, and robins will take some of the plums, and quail feed on them after they fall.

BEST SEASONS: SPRING (wild plum is one of our finest flowering trees). FALL (for those trees that develop good fall color) and LATE SUMMER (for the fruit harvest).

NATIVE AND ADAPTIVE RANGE: This is one of our most adaptable plums. It grows naturally from south-eastern Saskatchewan east to New England and south to northern Florida. This species and several of its close relatives can be grown north through most of USDA zone 3.

CULTURE: Plums like sunny sites and good soil drainage. They benefit from the same spray program that can be used for the home orchard, especially if insect-and disease-free fruits and attractive foliage are desired, but they don’t require such attention to survive. They are easy to raise from seed, picked and cleaned as soon as the fruits are completely ripe and planted in early fall. Be sure to protect the seedbed from mice. Plums are shallow rooted and easy to transplant in early spring, and suckering clumps may be divided and relocated.

PROBLEMS: Wild plum and its relatives are subject to many leaf spot fungi, black knot disease (Dibotryon morbosum) of the stem, and the common brown rot fungi (Monilinia) that destroy many stone fruits in the home orchard. They can be attacked by the same clearwing borers (Sanninoidea exitiosa) and other insects that bother stone fruits in the orchard, including ubiquitous pests like yellownecks (Datana ministra), Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica), tent caterpillers (Malacosoma americanum), and fall webworms (Hyphantria cunea). Plums are also susceptible to newly discovered virus disease called plum pox potyvirus.

The sharp spur branches of plums can be hazardous at trees are planted too close to activity areas, and the falling fruits are messy if they land on a patio or driveway. Vigilance is important when monitoring for the appearance of unwanted sucker, which should be mowed, or preferably pulled, as soon as they are noticed, unless a plum thicker is desired.

CULTIVARS: Many selections of wild plum are available for fruit production and wildlife habitat use in local areas. The species is also useful in hybridization programs and as a rootstock for grafting domestic plums. I have not found any cultivars selected for ornamental use.

SIMILAR AND RELATED SPECIES: The similar Chickasaw plum (Prunus angustifolia) is more of a southern species, hardy to USDA zone 6. It has narrow leaves and thus makes a more finely textured tree, almost like an olive (Olea europaea). This is our largest plum species. The record reportedly belongs to a specimen planted very far from its natural range, in Oregon, that stands 86 feet (25.8 m) tall and is more than 3 feet (0.9 m) in diameter. Since I have not seen it, however, I cannot vouch for its identification or the accuracy of its unusually large measurements.

Canada plum (Prunus nigra) is very hardy, to USDA zone 3, and is limited to the states and provinces bordering the United States-Canada international boundary from Manitoba eastward. It can become a fairly large tree and, like wild plum, blooms before the leaves emerge. This species is used widely as a food source, and several ethnobotanists have noted that it is found at many locations known to have been aboriginal village sites of Native Americans. Whether they cultivated it or merely left the seeds behind to grow is open to debate. One cultivar, ‘Princess Kay’, is listed.

Mexican plum (Prunus mexicana) also becomes a nice tree more often than it does a thicket, and with USDA zone 5 hardiness it is at home as much in the United States as in Mexico. It has a broad natural range covering much of the central United States from Nebraska and Ohio south into Mexico. Its tart reddish purple fruits ripen later than those of most other plums and are used mostly for preserves. Sloe plum (P. umbellate) is similar but smaller and is found more in low, sandy areas across the Deep South.

The wildgoose plums, Prunus bortulana and P. munsoniana, are smaller species restricted to the lower Midwest, and they bloom later, when the leaves are beginning to expand. Their small yellow fruits are edible but used primarily by small mammals. Prunus munsoniana, known as Munson’s wildgoose plum, is more valuable for its fruit than for its flowers and has furnished several pomological selections. I discovered the largest P. munsoniana ever found, at New Salem, the Illinois village where Abraham Lincoln lived in the early 1800s. It was nearly 18 inches (45 cm) in diameter, growing east of the first store Lincoln operated as a young businessman in the 1830s. A tornado later damaged the old plum, but I am working with the manager of the historic site to protect and restore it. Despite the loss of much of its crown, its large diameter is sufficient to allow it to remain the U.S. national champion. Hog plum (P. rivularis) is nearly identical to Munson’s wildgoose plum and ranges further southwest into Texas. Its fruits are not as large or sweet as those of the wildgoose plums, and it tends to from shrubby thickets more than the others.

Other native plum species exist only as low shrubs or, like Prunus murrayana of Trans-Pecos Texas, as rare, indistinct taxa unlikely to be encountered. Plumps belong to the same genus as the stone-fruited trees of orchards, a genus that includes more than two hundred species worldwide.

COMMENTS: Archeologists have documented the value of wild plums to Native Americans and found evidence of their prehistoric use of these trees. They were first mentioned in historical literature in connection with the 1524 expedition of Giovanni di Verrazano, who was probably describing the beach plum (Prunus maritime), a shrubby species popular in cultivation today. Wild plums were recorded as a food source as early as May 30, 1539, in a journal entry of the Hernando de Soto expedition, and they remain high on the list of wild edible plants today.

Plums are not as valuable for wildlife food as it would seem they should be, but they join hawthorns (Crataegus) as some of the most valuable nesting cover available throughout the extensive range. They are also useful for erosion control due to their tolerance of poor, dry soil and because of the thicket-forming nature of most species. They host many butterflies, including several colorful hairstreaks and the giant cecropia moth, with its 6-inch (15-cm) wingspan.