Family: Rosaceae
American plum, wild plum
[Prunus americana f. americana Marshall, more...]
Merel R. Black
Matthew L. Wagner
University of Wisconsin - Madison (WIS-VP)
Borders and clearings of forests of oak, oak-hickory, sugar maple-basswood, sugar maple-beech-hemlock; including wet or riverine forests of silver maple-elm-willow-cottonwood, red maple-box elder-elm, silver maple-swamp white oak. Pine barrens, oak barrens, blufftops, old fields, thickets, marshes, sedge meadows, riverbanks, pine relicts, prairie thickets, cliffs, mesic to dry prairies, talus slopes, stabilized dunes along Lake Michigan, old gravel pits, especially common along roadsides, railroads, and fencerows. This is our most common plum, found across the southern half of the state and rather local north of the Tension Zone. Prunus americana has been used in the development of many cultivars and hybrids and some of our plants may be escapes. Often forming thickets along roadsides where the springtime blossoms are a welcome sight. See comments under Malus ioensis.
Etymology: Prunus: ancient Latin name for the plum
Plants: perennial shrub
Conservation Status: Native
Plants: perennial shrub
Conservation Status: Native
- large thicket-forming shrub or small tree
- branches bearing stout spines
- flowers white, 1-4 in umbels
- petals 6-11 mm
- margins of sepals lacking glands or with a few at the apex
- leaves more than twice as long as wide
- leaf serrations sharply pointed, glands absent
- fruit 2-3 cm diam.
Floristic Rating: Coefficient of Conservatism = 3, Wetland Indicator = UPL USDA Plants Database: Federal Distribution and detailed information including photos University of Wisconsin - Green Bay: Shrubs: Photos, descriptions, information University of Wisconsin - Green Bay: Trees: Photos, descriptions, information USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS): Images of seeds, fruits, embryos, etc. Virginia Tech Dept. of Forestry, College of Natural Resources: detailed description and photographs Southwest School of Botanical Medicine: Britton & Brown Illustrated Flora - 2nd Edition (1913) "An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada" Landscape Plants of the Upper Midwest; UW-Extension: Interactive guide providing information on cultivation including: soil, zone, growth rate, landscape uses, pruning, light requirements; with photos and Latin name pronounciation
Matthew L. Wagner
Hugh H. Iltis
Robert R. Kowal
Merel R. Black
Matthew L. Wagner
Merel R. Black
Robert W. Freckmann
Merel R. Black
Michael Clayton
Robert R. Kowal
