WILD AMERICAN PLUM

LARGE BED OF AMERICAN PLUM...

...SPREADING SHRUBS OR SMALL TREES...

,.,WITH FRAGRANT WHITE FLOWERS,,,

...YOUNG BARK WITH LENTICELS...

...AND THORNY BRANCHES

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  57 degrees F at the ferry dock, 63 on the back porch.  The discrepancy is due to the strong northerly winds blowing off the cold lake downtown, and westerly winds up on our bluff.  The sky has a few very high, scattered white clouds.  The humidity is relatively low at 48% and the barometer is on the rise, currently at 29.97".  We should have at least several nice days leading into the long holiday weekend.
   Yesterday I  mostly spent finalizing the locations of City of Bayfield trees to be planted, hopefully next week, and calling Digger's Hotline to locate utilities.  Today our lawn must be mowed and more garden and yard work begun.
   Every spring a huge clone of American plum, Prunus americana, in the Rose Family, blooms heavily and is visible looking west from Hwy. 13 just north of its intersection with Hwy. J.  The large, spreading shrubs bloom beautifully and I find them nicely fragrant.  The shrubs are quite thorny if one gets entangled in them.  They will bear reddish fruit  about an inch in diameter, that are edible and quite delicious, in late summer into early fall.  I always mean to go back and collect fruit but always forget.  The fruit makes great jams and jellies, and is particularly attractive to bears, which will pull down whole shrubs to get at the fruit.
   American plum ranges naturally over much of the eastern and midwestern North American continent, mainly on alluvial soils, grading into numerous regional varieties on the edges of its range.  It has been much selected and hybridized horticulturally, and used as rootstocks for varieties of domestic plums.  It was an important food source for Native Americans and early settlers.
   These shrubs spread by root suckers and form large thickets, so are difficult to use in the small landscape, but are great for naturalizing in parks and on farms and estates.