WILD PLUM
Prunus americana, Marsh.
Form.—Height 10-25 feet, diameter 6-12 inches; trunk short supporting a wide-spreading crown of horizontal and drooping branches.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple 2-4 inches long, narrowly obovate, long taper-pointed at apex, sharply and doubly serrate, firm, dark green and rough above, paler and hairy below.
Flowers.—May, with the leaves; perfect; 1 inch wide, white, arranged in 2-5-flowered umbels.
Fruit.—Ripens in early autumn; a globose, red drupe about 1 inch in diameter, the flesh sweet and edible; stone flattened.
Bark.—Grayish-brown and rough on old trunks with thin, flat plates.
Wood.—Hard, heavy, strong, close-grained, red-brown, with thin light sapwood.
Range.—New York to Florida, west to Texas and Montana.