Hortulan 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. Courtesy of Kentucky Native Plant Society. Scanned by Omnitek Inc. — Public domain · source

Survives zone 5 through 8

Harvest calendar

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

A genuinely good-eating wild plum, unlike some of its drier-fruited desert relatives — sweet, juicy flesh popular for jelly, jam and wine. Widely used in reforestation and conservation plantings for its drought tolerance and soil adaptability. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.

Hardiness

Zone 5–8

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

To 9 m (30 ft)

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–7.5 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Central United States — Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia, with introduced/disjunct populations in Massachusetts and Maryland; floodplains and savanna.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

Medium

Spacing

450 cm (177 in) apart — about 20 m² (218 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, lance-shaped to obovate, finely and sharply toothed, with a pair of small glands (extrafloral nectaries) on the leaf stalk near the blade — a Prunus signature worth learning, since it separates the genus from most look-alikes.

Root system

Shallow and strongly suckering, throwing root shoots that build a thicket over time — the natural habit of the American plums. Useful for stabilising a bank, a nuisance in a border, and the reason a single planted tree becomes a clump. Suckers are also the easiest way to propagate it.

Fruit description

Red or yellow drupes with white dots, about 2.5 cm, sweet and juicy

Propagation

Seed (2–3 months cold stratification, up to 18 months to germinate), half-ripe cuttings with a heel in July–August, or layering in spring.

Pollination

Self-fertile, but a second plant nearby improves the crop.

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.