Wild plum

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Wild plum fruit

Wild plum branch

Wild plum

Wild plum fruit

Wild plum

Wild plum

Wild plum flowers

Wild plum flower

Wild plum flowers

Wild plum sepals

Morphology

Trunk

Erect, to 12 inches in diameter; bark thick, dark grayish brown; branches more or less thorny; bark smooth, purplish or orange-brown.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, short-stalked, obovate to lanceolate-ovate, 2.5 to 4 inches long, 1.25 to 2 inches wide, shiny green and glabrous above, nearly glabrous or sparsely hairy on veins below; margins sharply toothed; tips tapering to points.

Flowers

Clusters of 2-5 flowers emerging on branches generally before leaves appear. Flowers 3/4 to 1 inch wide, short-stalked, fragrant; sepals 5, conspicuously bent backward; petals 5, to 1/2 inch long, white; stamens 20-30; many flowers not producing fruit.

Fruit

Fleshy, spherical, reddish purple or yellowish with red blotches, about 1 inch in diameter, tough-skinned, 1-seeded.

Ecology

Habitat

Woodlands, thickets, stream banks, ravines, and roadsides.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Native Americans ate the fruits fresh, cooked, or dried. Some tribes bound the twigs together and used them as brooms, and the appearance of the blossoms was sometimes used to time the planting of corn, beans, and squash. Wild plum thickets provide excellent wildlife habitat, and their root systems help prevent soil erosion.

Additional Notes