WILD PLUMS

LARGE THIKET OF WILD  PLUMS... 

...FLOWERS BLOOM MOSTLY BEFORE LEAVES EMERGE...

...VERY FLORIFEROUS...

BEARING LARGE, RED FRUIT (photo from Trees of Wisconsin)...

...AND THORNY

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  46 degrees F, wind NE, variable.  The sky has a few clouds but it is mostly clear and sunny.  The humidity is 91% and the barometer is trending up, now at 29.91".  Our Texas family left for home yesterday and it is far too quiet. I have a lot of yard and garden work to catch up with, if I can fight off the mosquitos, which are enjoying a population boom due to all the rain and humid weather.
   Wild plums, of the species Prunus americana, are blooming along roadsides and in fencerows.  Closely related to each other and both in the rose family, the white blossoms of plums and cherries look quite similar.  The differences between the fruit of cherries and plums in size, shape, color,  and taste is obvious, but when fruit is not present the plants can easily be confused.
   These are some other simple defining characteristics of wild plums: they are mostly shrubby and usually grow from suckers into large, sprawling thickets which are very prominent when in bloom; the clusters of flowers appear mostly before the leaves, and are quite fragrant; the branches usually have stout, blunt thorns (not needle sharp, like hawthorns). Similar to many of the cherries, wild plum bark is often dark and shiny, and has lenticels.  There are other species of plums native to other regions of North America, but I would think P. americana to be the one most encountered and thought of as "wild plum."
   When fully ripe wild plums are delicious, and large enough to be really useful for eating, and for making jams and jellies.  The trick is to get to them before the bears, raccoons and birds do.  Bears can be very destructive, often flattening whole shrubs to get at the fruit. Wild plums are sometimes cultivated, but are difficult to grow since they are quite uncontrollable, and are insect and disease prone. They are, however,  well worth preserving and encouraging  in the native landscape.
   Prunus americana is native to most of the middle region of the US east of the Mississippi river, and in Wisconsin to most of the southern two-thirds of the state and the Apostle Islands and the adjacent shoreline of Lake Superior in the north.