American Plum, Wild Plum,.Prunus americana, Native Minnesota Tree, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Wild Plum	Prunus americana Marsh.	Rose (Rosaceae)	Upland	Mid-April to Mid- May depending on season
Other names and notes	(American Plum) A full size fruit tree located in the Upland Garden on the first hill at Guidebook station 46. The one inch wide white 5-part flowers are single or in small clusters along the stems at the juncture of stem and leaf. Flowering stems are usually grayish and scaly with age. The plant can be a large shrub or grow into tree size of up to 15 feet high. Leaves are alternate, oval, with a tapering tip, have sharp edges and sometimes double toothed. Fruits are about one inch in size, yellow to red, edible and often used in making jams and jellies. Wild plum is valuable for wildlife cover and food. It has a suckering habit, forming dense thickets that provide good bird habitat. It has shallow, wide spreading roots and when young is easily transplanted. Martha Crone wrote in the April 1961 issue of The Fringed Gentian™ "The trees in May offer many lovely sights, but none finer than when in bloom, especially the wild cherries, plum and hawthorns."


Above: The large Wild Plum in the Upland Garden is listed as a Minneapolis Heritage Tree. Below: Flowers appear in small clusters all along the stems at the juncture of stem and leaf.

Below left: Trunk bark of the large plum in the Upland Garden Below center: Flowering stems are usually grayish and scaly with age; older flowering stems also have short twigs, marked with scars or small buds and with thorn-like tips.

Notes: Eloise Butler did not note this plant or her early census of plants in the original woodland area. Instead she listed Prunus nigra, the Canadian Plum as being present, which is native to the state. P. americana is listed on Martha Crones 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden. This census was taken after the upland addition to the Garden was acquired. The plant is native to Minnesota and is found in most counties with the exceptions being mostly in the far north central counties and some in the south where there is little forest growth remaining. The tree in the Upland Garden pictured here is of sufficient stature that it is listed as a Minneapolis Heritage Tree. (Article - Heritage Trees in the Garden). Wild Plum is on the "threatened list" in New Hampshire and Vermont. Eloise Butler wrote: "From a distance thickets of the thorny, still leafless, Wild Plum now seem covered with snowflakes, the illusion being due to myriads of white blossoms. We find the resultant red and yellow, somewhat puckery fruit not unpalatable, if the birds do not forestall us in harvesting it."

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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