A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus. Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century.[1][2]
Plums are likely to have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans, with origins in East European and Caucasian mountains and China. They were brought to Britain from Asia, and their cultivation has been documented in Andalusia, southern Spain. Plums are a diverse group of species, with trees reaching a height of 5–6 metres (16–20ft) when pruned. The fruit is a drupe, with a firm and juicy flesh.
China is the largest producer of plums, followed by Romania and Serbia. Japanese or Chinese plums dominate the fresh fruit market, while European plums are also common in some regions. Plums can be eaten fresh, dried to make prunes, used in jams, or fermented into wine and distilled into brandy. Plum kernels contain cyanogenic glycosides, but the oil made from them is not commercially available.
In terms of nutrition, raw plums are 87% water, 11% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and less than 1% fat. They are a moderate source of vitamin C but do not contain significant amounts of other micronutrients.
History
Plums are likely to have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans.[3] Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found in the wild, only around human settlements: Prunus domestica has been traced to East European and Caucasian mountains, while Prunus salicina and Prunus simonii originated in China. Plum remains have been found in Neolithic age archaeological sites along with olives, grapes and figs.[4][5] According to Ken Albala, plums originated in Iran.[6] They were brought to Britain from Asia.[7]
An article on plum tree cultivation in Andalusia (southern Spain) appears in Ibn al-'Awwam's 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture.[8]
Plum cultivation is recorded in medieval monasteries in England. A garden with 'ploumes' and 'bulaces' is referred to by Chaucer.[9]
The cultivation of plums increased during the 17th and 18th centuries. During this period greengages were given their English name and the Mirabelle plum became firmly established.[9] Advances in the development of new varieties in England were made by Thomas Rivers. Two examples of River's work are the varieties Early Rivers and Czar. Both are still esteemed. The fame of the Victoria plum, first sold in 1844, has been put down to good marketing rather than any inherent quality.[9]
Etymology and names
The name plum derived from Old Englishplume "plum, plum tree", borrowed from Germanic or Middle Dutch, derived from Latinprūnum[10] and ultimately from Ancient Greekπροῦμνονproumnon,[11] itself believed to be a loanword from an unknown language of Asia Minor.[2][12] In the late 18th century, the word plum was used to indicate "something sweet or agreeable", probably in reference to tasty fruit pieces in desserts, as in the word sugar-plum.[12]
Description
Plums are a diverse group of species. The commercially important plum trees are medium-sized, usually pruned to 5–6 metres (16–20ft) height. The tree is of medium hardiness.[13] Without pruning, the trees can reach 12 metres (39ft) in height and spread across 10 metres (33ft). They blossom in different months in different parts of the world; for example, in about January in Taiwan and early April in the United Kingdom.[14]
Fruits are usually of medium size, between 2–7 centimetres (0.79–2.76in) in diameter, globose to oval. The flesh is firm and juicy. The fruit's peel is smooth, with a natural waxy surface that adheres to the flesh. The plum is a drupe, meaning its fleshy fruit surrounds a single hard fruitstone which encloses the fruit's seed.
Cultivation and uses
Different plum cultivars
Japanese or Chinese plum
Damsons (European plum)
Prune plums (European plum)
Victoria plums (European plum)
Greengages (European plum)
Mirabelles (European plum)
Myrobalan or cherry plums
Plum (and sloe) production, 2020 millions of tonnes
Japanese or Chinese plums are large and juicy with a long shelf life and therefore dominate the fresh fruit market. They are usually clingstone and not suitable for making prunes.[18] They are cultivars of Prunus salicina or its hybrids. The cultivars developed in the US are mostly hybrids of P. salicina with P. simonii and P. cerasifera. Although these cultivars are often called Japanese plums, two of the three parents (P. salicina and P. simonii) originated from China and one (P. cerasifera) from Eurasia.[19]
Prune, a dried plum
In some parts of Europe, European plum (Prunus domestica) is also common in fresh fruit market. It has both dessert (eating) or culinary (cooking) cultivars, which include:
Damson (purple or black skin, green flesh, clingstone, astringent)
Prune plum (usually oval, freestone, sweet, fresh eaten or used to make prunes)
Greengage (firm, green flesh and skin even when ripe)
Mirabelle (dark yellow, predominantly grown in northeast France)
Victoria (yellow flesh with a red or mottled skin)
Yellowgage or golden plum (similar to greengage, but yellow)
In West Asia, myrobalan plum or cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) is also widely cultivated. In Russia, apart from these three commonly cultivated species, there are also many cultivars resulting from hybridization between Japanese plum and myrobalan plum, known as Russian plum (Prunus × rossica).[20]
When it flowers in the early spring, a plum tree will be covered in blossoms, and in a good year approximately 50% of the flowers will be pollinated and become plums. Flowering starts after 80 growing degree days.[21]
If the weather is too dry, the plums will not develop past a certain stage, but will fall from the tree while still tiny, green buds, and if it is unseasonably wet or if the plums are not harvested as soon as they are ripe, the fruit may develop a fungal condition called brown rot. Brown rot is not toxic, and some affected areas can be cut out of the fruit, but unless the rot is caught immediately, the fruit will no longer be edible. Plum is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera, including November moth, willow beauty and short-cloaked moth.[22]
The taste of the plum fruit ranges from sweet to tart; the skin itself may be particularly tart. It is juicy and can be eaten fresh or used in jam-making or other recipes. Plum juice can be fermented into plum wine. In central England, a cider-like alcoholic beverage known as plum jerkum is made from plums. Dried, salted plums are used as a snack, sometimes known as saladito or salao. Various flavors of dried plum are available at Chinese grocers and specialty stores worldwide. They tend to be much drier than the standard prune. Cream, ginseng, spicy, and salty are among the common varieties. Licorice is generally used to intensify the flavor of these plums and is used to make salty plum drinks and toppings for shaved ice or baobing. Pickled plums are another type of preserve available in Asia and international specialty stores. The Japanese variety, called umeboshi, is often used for rice balls, called onigiri or omusubi. The ume, from which umeboshi are made, is more closely related, however, to the apricot than to the plum.
In the Balkans, plum is converted into an alcoholic drink named slivovitz (plum brandy, called in Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin or Serbian šljivovica).[23][24] A large number of plums, of the Damson variety, are also grown in Hungary, where they are called szilva and are used to make lekvar (a plum paste jam), palinka (traditional fruit brandy), plum dumplings, and other foods. In Romania, 80% of the plum production is used to create a similar brandy, called țuică.[25]
As with many other members of the rose family, plum kernels contain cyanogenic glycosides, including amygdalin.[26] Prune kernel oil is made from the fleshy inner part of the pit of the plum. Though not available commercially, the wood of plum trees is used by hobbyists and other private woodworkers for musical instruments, knife handles, inlays, and similar small projects.[27]
Production
In 2019, global production of plums (data combined with sloes) was 12.6 million tonnes, led by China with 56% of the world total (table).[15]Romania and Serbia were secondary producers.[15]
Nutrition
Raw plums are 87% water, 11% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and less than 1% fat (table). In a 100-gram (3+1⁄2-ounce) reference serving, raw plums supply 192 kilojoules (46 kilocalories) of food energy and are a moderate source only of vitamin C (12% Daily Value), with no other micronutrients in significant content (table).
The numerous species of Prunus subg. Prunus are classified into many sections, but not all of them are called plums. Plums include species of sect. Prunus and sect. Prunocerasus,[28] as well as P. mume of sect. Armeniaca. Only two plum species, the hexaploid European plum (Prunus domestica) and the diploid Japanese plum (Prunus salicina and hybrids), are of worldwide commercial significance. The origin of P. domestica is uncertain but may have involved P. cerasifera and possibly P. spinosa as ancestors. Other species of plum variously originated in Europe, Asia and America.[29]
Sect. Prunus (Old World plums) – leaves in bud rolled inwards; flowers 1–3 together; fruit smooth, often wax-bloomed
In certain parts of the world, some fruits are called plums and are quite different from fruits known as plums in Europe or the Americas. For example, marian plums are popular in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, otherwise also known as gandaria, plum mango, ma-praang, ma-yong, ramania, kundang, rembunia or setar.[31] Another example is the loquat, also known as Japanese plum and Japanese medlar, as well as nispero, bibassier and wollmispel elsewhere.[32][33] In South Asia and Southeast Asia, Jambul, a fruit from tropical tree in family Myrtaceae, is similarly sometimes referred to 'damson plums', and it is different from damson plums found in Europe and Americas.[34] Jambul is also called as Java plum, Malabar plum, Jaman, Jamun, Jamblang, Jiwat, Salam, Duhat, Koeli, Jambuláo or Koriang.
An apricot is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus Prunus.
In botany, a drupe is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a single shell of hardened endocarp with a seed (kernel) inside. Drupes do not split open to release the seed, i.e., they are indehiscent. These fruits usually develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries.
A prune is a dried plum, most commonly from the European plum tree. Not all plum species or varieties can be dried into prunes. A prune is the firm-fleshed fruit (plum) of Prunus domestica varieties that have a high soluble solids content, and do not ferment during drying. Use of the term "prune" for fresh plums is obsolete except when applied to varieties of plum grown for drying.
Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs in the flowering plant family Rosaceae that includes plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Eurasia and Africa, There are about 340 accepted species as of March 2024. Many members of the genus are widely cultivated for their fruit and for decorative purposes. Prunus fruit are drupes, or stone fruits. The fleshy mesocarp surrounding the endocarp is edible while the endocarp itself forms a hard, inedible shell called the pyrena. This shell encloses the seed, which is edible in some species, but poisonous in many others. Besides being eaten off the hand, most Prunus fruit are also commonly used in processing, such as jam production, canning, drying, and the seeds for roasting.
Prunus mume is a Chinese tree species classified in the Armeniaca section of the genus Prunus subgenus Prunus. Its common names include Chinese plum,Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, long a beloved subject in the traditional painting and poetry of Sinospheric countries, is usually called plum blossom. This distinct tree species is related to both the plum and apricot trees. Although generally referred to as a plum in English, it is more closely related to the apricot. In East Asian cuisine, the fruit of the tree is used in juices, as a flavouring for alcohol, as a pickle, and in sauces. It is also used in traditional medicine.
The greengages are a group of cultivars of the common Middle Eastern plum. The first true greengage came from a green-fruited wild plum which originated in Iran. Greengages are grown in temperate areas and are known for the rich, confectionery flavour. They are considered to be among the finest dessert plums; Anna Pavord calls them "most ambrosial of all tree fruit" and David Karp describes them as "the best fruit in the world".
The damson or damson plum, also archaically called the "damascene", is an edible drupaceous fruit, a subspecies of the plum tree. Varieties of insititia are found across Europe, but the name damson is derived from and most commonly applied to forms that are native to Great Britain. Damsons are relatively small ovoid plum-like fruit with a distinctive, somewhat astringent taste, and are widely used for culinary purposes, particularly in fruit preserves and jams.
Prunus cerasifera is a species of plum known by the common names cherry plum and myrobalan plum. It is native to Southeast Europe and Western Asia, and is naturalised in the British Isles and scattered locations in North America. Also naturalized in parts of SE Australia where it is considered to be a mildly invasive weed of bushland near urban centers. P. cerasifera is believed to one of the parents of the cultivated plum, Prunus domestica perhaps crossing with the sloe, Prunus spinosa, or perhaps the sole parent. This would make it a parent of most of the commercial varieties of plum in the UK and mainland Europe - Victoria, greengages, bullace etc.
Mirabelle plum is a cultivar group of plum trees of the genus Prunus. It is believed that the plum was cultivated from a wild fruit grown in Anatolia.
Prunus salicina, commonly called the Japanese plum or Chinese plum, is a small deciduous tree native to China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It is an introduced species in Korea, Japan, Israel, the United States, and Australia.
The bullace is a variety of plum. It bears edible fruit similar to those of the damson, and like the damson is considered to be a strain of the insititia subspecies of Prunus domestica. Although the term has regionally been applied to several different kinds of "wild plum" found in the United Kingdom, it is usually taken to refer to varieties with a spherical shape, as opposed to the oval damsons.
Prunus domestica is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. A deciduous tree, it includes many varieties of the fruit trees known as plums in English, though not all plums belong to this species. The greengages and damsons also belong to subspecies of P. domestica.
The perdrigon, occasionally spelt "perdigon", is an old variety of culinary plum originating in the south of France. It is sometimes classified as a variety of Prunus domestica subsp. insititia, like the British damson and German krieche, though it has significant differences from both. It was once classed as Prunus pertigona or Prunus domestica pertigona.
Prunus subg. Prunus is a subgenus of Prunus. This subgenus includes plums, apricots and bush cherries. Some species conventionally included in Prunus subg. Amygdalus are clustered with plum/apricot species according to molecular phylogenetic studies. Shi et al. (2013) has incorporated subg. Amygdalus into subg. Prunus, thereby including almonds and peaches in this subgenus. The species in this subgenus have solitary flowers or 2–3 in a fascicle.
Prunus simonii, called apricot plum and Simon plum, is a tree in the genus Prunus. It was first described by Elie-Abel Carrière in 1872 and is native to Hebei province, China. The species is not known in a truly wild state. It has been important for breeding commercial plum cultivars from crosses with other species of the genus Prunus. The species is named for Gabriel Eugène Simon (1829–1896), a French botanist and diplomat who sent pits to the Paris Museum in the early 1860s while he was representing the French government in China. Beginning about 1881, the species became commonly known in the United States; having been introduced there from France.
'Climax' is a Prunus cultivar, considered to be a plum. It was introduced in 1899 by plant breeder Luther Burbank.
The prune plum is a fruit-bearing tree, or its fruit. It is a subspecies of the plum Prunus domestica. The freestone fruit is especially popular in Central Europe.
Prunus × fruticans is a shrubby dark-fruiting Prunus of hybrid origin allied to Blackthorn, Bullace and Damsons. Examples frequently reach about 4 m (13 ft) in height, although large tree-like forms are known.
Prunus sect. Prunus is a section of Prunus subg. Prunus. It contains species of Eurasian plum.
1 2 3 Davidson, Alan (2014). Jaine, Tom (ed.). The Oxford companion to food (3. ed. / ed. by Tom Jaineed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN978-0-19-967733-7.
↑ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Food and Nutrition Board; Committee to Review the Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium (2019). Oria, Maria; Harrison, Meghan; Stallings, Virginia A. (eds.). Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (US). ISBN978-0-309-48834-1. PMID30844154. Archived from the original on 2024-05-09. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
↑ Clark, Larry. "Plums". Washington State Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
↑ Jan Velíšek; František Pudil; Jiří Davídek; Vladislav Kubelka (1982). "The neutral volatile components of Czechoslovak plum brandy". Zeitschrift für Lebensmittel-Untersuchung und -Forschung A. 174 (6): 463–466. doi:10.1007/BF01042726. S2CID88247885.
↑ Bruce L. Topp; Dougal M. Russell; Michael Neumüller; Marco A. Dalbó; Weisheng Liu (2012). "Plum". Plum (Handbook of Plant Breeding). Vol.8, part 3. Springer. pp.571–621. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0763-9_15. ISBN9781441907639.
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