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Prunus americana
Also called American Red Plum, Goose Plum, American Wild Plum, Wild Plum, Wild Red Plum, Wild Yellow Plum
American plum (Prunus americana) is a native North American shrub or small tree, grown for its spring white blossoms, edible red fruit and use as a rootstock for domestic plums. Grow it in full sun in well-drained coarse or medium soil, and expect suckering.
Prunus americana, commonly called the American plum, wild plum, or Marshall's large yellow sweet plum, is a species of Prunus native to North America.
Many cultivated varieties have been derived from the species. The fruit has a number of culinary uses and the domestic plum can be grafted to the rootstock. The fruit and roots were also used by Native Americans.
The white flowers are decorative in spring and its short, single leader makes it a popular residential landscape tree. According to botanist Charles Sprague Sargent,As an ornamental plant P. americana has real value; the long wand-like branches form a wide, graceful head which is handsome in winter and in spring is covered with masses of pure white flowers followed by ample bright foliage and abundant showy fruit.By 1950, over 200 forms had been selected for cultivation, with at least 50 cultivars known.
The species is native to North America from Saskatchewan and Idaho south to New Mexico and east to Québec, Maine and Florida. It has often been planted outside its native range and sometimes escapes cultivation.
The sour and sweet fruit is eaten fresh and is processed as preserves, jellies, jam and wine. The tree also forms an excellent rootstock upon which to graft the domestic plum. The Plains Indians and Cheyenne ate the plums; the latter used the branches for the Sun Dance. The Navajo used the roots to make a red dye.
Prunus adenopoda · Red stinkwood · Prunus aitchisonii · Alabama cherry · Prunus alaica · Allegheny plum · Prunus amplifolia · Almond · Desert peach · Chickasaw plum · Prunus annularis · Taiwan Cherry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Prunus americana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
