Prunus americana
Origin: Pennsylvania
Improvement status: Wild
Seeds per packet: ~8
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
American plums were once common across their native range (most of the eastern half of the continental US along with a few adjacent parts of Canada), but with an ongoing loss of habitat they have become increasingly rare. Plums thrive in successional forests and meadows, but they generally can't survive in places with a thick canopy of taller trees. The lack of fire in most eastern woods, with the attendant maturation of forests across massive amounts of former grassland acreage means wild plums of most every species are on the decline.
This species is as diverse as any, producing fruits that range in size and color (which could be yellow, green, orange, pink, red, purple or blue). Taste varies too, with some great for fresh eating out of hand, and others only suitable for jam, jelly, wine, brandy, etc.
These are Pennsylvania ecotype seeds from Sheffield's Seeds in Locke, NY.
GROWING TIPS: Cold/moist stratify seeds for 90-120 days. Prefers full sun. Can form a dense thicket over time, so remove runners and suckers if this is not what you're looking for.
NOTE: Side-by-side photo of yellow and pink fruit is from a naturalized population in Chile. It was taken by Dick Culbert and is shared here under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. The lone purple fruit image and the two green fruit image are both from Matt Lavin and are shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. All of the other images were photographed by EFN's Nate Kleinman.
