Allegheny plum

Photo: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 2: 324. — Public domain · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

The Allegheny plum: dark purple fruit up to 2cm with thick, juicy, pleasantly acid flesh — good fresh and better in preserves. A scarce plant in the wild, restricted to the Appalachians and a disjunct population in Michigan.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

August

Mature size

Thicket-forming shrub or small tree to 3.5 m, fast-growing

Light

Full sun for a crop; tolerates partial shade

Soil pH

5.5–8.0 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Woodland

Native range

Eastern North America — the Appalachians from New York and Pennsylvania south through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky to Tennessee and North Carolina, with a disjunct population in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan (var. davisii), in thickets, woodland edges and limestone bluffs. Recorded historically from New Jersey and Connecticut, where it now appears to be extirpated.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

40–60 cm/year — fast for a wild plum, thicketing quickly once established.

Spacing

300 cm (118 in) apart — about 9 m² (97 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, oblong to lance-shaped, 5–9 cm long, drawn out to a long pointed tip with a finely toothed margin, dull green and slightly hairy beneath when young.

Root system

Shallow and suckering, spreading by root shoots into low thickets rather than holding to a single stem.

Fruit description

Round plums 12–20 mm across ripening dark reddish-purple with a pale waxy bloom; the flesh is thick, juicy and pleasantly acid — decent fresh, and better cooked into preserves.

Propagation

Suckers lifted in the dormant season are the simplest route. Seed requires roughly 90–120 days moist cold stratification at about 4°C after cleaning, and germinates erratically without it.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated and largely self-incompatible like the other American plums — two or more plants set far better fruit than one.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.