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Prunus cerasifera
Also called Myrobalan Plum, Myrobalan, Sand Plum, Purple Leaf Plum, Cherry Plum, Myrobalan, Ciruela Chabacana
Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) is a large shrub or small tree from southeast Europe and western Asia, grown for its very early spring flowers, colourful foliage and edible fruit. Full sun and well-drained soil are the keys to good growth; many grown forms have purple leaves.
Prunus cerasifera is a species of plum known by the common names cherry plum and myrobalan plum. Native to Eurasia and naturalized elsewhere, P. cerasifera is believed to be one of the parents of the cultivated plum.
The cherry plum is a popular ornamental tree for garden and landscaping use, grown for its very early flowering. Numerous cultivars have been developed, many of them selected for purple foliage, such as P. cerasifera var pissardii (Carrière) L.H. Bailey (P. 'Atropurpurea'). The cultivar 'Nigra' with black foliage and pink flowers, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Prunus × cistena (purple leaf sand cherry), a hybrid of Prunus cerasifera and Prunus pumila, the sand cherry, also won the Award of Garden Merit. These purple-foliage forms (often called 'purple-leaf plum'), also have dark purple fruit, which make an attractive, intensely coloured jam. They can have white or pink flowers. The cultivar 'Thundercloud' has bright red foliage which darkens purple. Others, such as 'Lindsayae', have green foliage. Some kinds of purple-leaf plums are used for bonsai and other forms of living sculpture. Cultivated cherry plums can have fruits, foliage, and flowers in any of several colours.
It is native to Southeast Europe and Western Asia, and is naturalised in the British Isles and scattered locations in North America. It is also naturalized in parts of Southeast Australia where it is considered to be a mildly invasive weed of bushland near urban centers.
The fruits are edible. Some varieties have sweet fruits that can be eaten fresh, while others are sour and better for making jam. Cherry plums are a key ingredient in Georgian cuisine where they are used to produce tkemali sauce, as well as a number of popular dishes, such as kharcho soup and chakapuli stew. It is a popular tree in Romania where its fruits are used for souring soups when immature, for eating raw when ripened, and for making moonshine when overripe because of their high sugar content.
Prunus adenopoda · Red stinkwood · Prunus aitchisonii · Alabama cherry · Prunus alaica · Allegheny plum · American plum · Prunus amplifolia · Almond · Desert peach · Chickasaw plum · Prunus annularis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Prunus cerasifera 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.
