THE common wild plum, or yellow plum, is a small tree which at a height usually of 3 to 6 feet divides into many spreading branches, often drooping at the ends. Not uncommonly it grows in thickets where it attains only large shrub size. The value of the tree lies in its fruit from which jelly and preserves are made, and its handsome form, and foliage, pure white fragrant flowers, and showy fruit which make it desirable for ornamental planting.
WILD PLUM
Three-quarters natural size.
The leaves are alternate, oval, pointed, sharply toothed, (often doubly toothed) along the margin, thick and firm, 3 to 4 inches long by 1 to 2 inches wide, narrowed or rounded at the base, and prominently veined on both surfaces.
The flowers appear in numerous small clusters before, or simultaneously with, the leaves, and are white with small bright red portions in the center. The fruit, or plum, which ripens in late summer, is red or orange colored, about an inch in diameter, contains a stone or pit that is flattened and about as long as the pulpy part, and varies rather widely in its palatability.
The wood is heavy, hard, close-grained, reddish-brown in color and has no especial commercial uses.
The Canada plum, Prunus nigra Ait., is similar to the common wild plum, but the teeth of the leaves are blunt, the leaves are thin and the fruit is orange in color, almost without bloom.
The wild goose plum, Prunus hortulana Bailey, has thin lance-shaped leaves; its flowers have short petals and it has a rather hard, small globular fruit.
