Fruit matures in late summer; one-half inch in diameter, nearly round, without cavity or suture, borne on a slender pedicel three-quarters inch long, orange-red or bright red to purple or nearly black, covered with a thin bloom; skin thick and tough; flesh coarse, thick, acid or astringent, scarcely edible; stone nearly free, flattened, acute at both ends, rugose, thin-walled.
Prunus umbellata, the Sloe, Black Sloe or Hog Plum, Oldfield, and sometimes Chickasaw and Bullace of the South, is found along the seaboard from South Carolina to central Florida, thence westward to the Gulf and along its shores to Texas. Inland it is found as far north as middle Georgia,[131] Alabama and Mississippi and southern Arkansas. Though very common in localities in the region outlined, there are vast areas of this territory in which it is scarcely found, preferring bottom lands of rivers and rich, moist soils in some instances and dry, sandy copses, open woods and borders of fields in others. In flower and fruit it is a handsome and conspicuous plant, yet, as the references show, the early botanists did not describe it, and even Elliott, who gave it its name, in 1821, passed it by with a scant description. Its neglect by the several famous botanists of the Eighteenth Century who explored this region must be attributed to their confusing it with Prunus angustifolia and Prunus maritima, one or the other of which is found in most of the region, and to the idiosyncrasies of the distribution of Prunus umbellata.
The fruit of this species is unfit for dessert purposes but is commonly gathered for culinary use and sometimes is offered for sale in the markets of the South, being highly esteemed for pies, jams and jellies. There appear to have been no efforts made to domesticate it, however, and since it is quite inferior in fruit-characters to others of the native plums, efforts to that end are probably not worth while.
PRUNUS UMBELLATA INJUCUNDA (Small) Sargent
1. Sargent Sil. N. Am. 13:21. 1902.
Prunus injucunda. 2. Small Torrey Bot. Club Bul. 25:149. 1898. 3. Mohr Ibid. 26:118. 1899. 4. Ibid. Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 6:552. 1901. 5. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 1449. 1901.
Tree low, seldom twenty feet in height, often a straggling shrub; trunk short, crooked, attaining a diameter of eight inches; bark dark brown, nearly black; branches slender, rigid, twiggy and somewhat spiny; branchlets velvety becoming purplish and finally a dull gray; lenticels few, yellowish.
Leaves oblong-ovate to obovate, taper-pointed at the apex and obtuse or rounded at the base, margins closely and finely toothed, thin in texture; upper surface yellowish-green, wrinkled and more or less pubescent, lower surface densely pubescent and with a prominent yellowish midrib and rather prominent lateral veins; petioles stout, one-half inch in length, very pubescent; stipules lanceolate, small, caducous.
Flowers medium in size or small, usually appearing before the leaves; in four or five-flowered sub-sessile umbels; pedicels slender, three-quarters inch in length, very pubescent; calyx-tube obconic, tomentose, with erect, entire, sharply pointed, ciliate, tomentose lobes; petals white, orbicular, clawed; filaments and base of pistil tomentose.