Prune plum | |
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Prune plum tree in fruit | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Rosaceae |
Genus: | Prunus |
Species: | |
Subspecies: | P. d. subsp. domestica |
Trinomial name | |
Prunus domestica subsp. domestica | |
Synonyms | |
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The prune plum (Prunus domestica subsp. domestica) is a fruit-bearing tree, or its fruit. It is a subspecies of the plum Prunus domestica . [1] The freestone fruit is similar to, but distinct from, the clingstone damson (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia) [2] and is especially popular in Central Europe.
The fruit is known under various regional names, including "blue plum", "damask plum", "sugar plum", and "German prune" in English-speaking countries, and "Zwetschge" in German-speaking ones. [2] [3] The word Zwetschge ( /ˈtsvɛtʃɡə/ ), plural Zwetschgen, is from the German. Variants of the word include: Quetsch(e) (Lorraine, Alsace, Luxembourg, and regionally in Germany); Kwetsen (Dutch), Zwetschke (regionally in Austria); and Zwetsche (regionally in Germany). [4] These names, like damson, are thought ultimately to derive from postulated Vulgar Latin *davascena, altered from damascena, meaning "of Damascus", [5] reflexes of which appear mainly in Franco-Provençal, e.g. daveigne (Jura), dav(d)gna (Franche-Comté).[ citation needed ]
The prune plum tree is often found in streuobstwiesen . It grows to 6–10 m in height; older trees have spreading branches. The bark is brownish. The leaf is simple, 4–10 cm long, alternate, petiolate, crenulate, and elliptic. The blossom appears in April and May in the Northern Hemisphere, before or with foliation, and is white, greenish-white, or yellowish-green on two or three downy pedicels. The fruit is a freestone drupe. It is less round than other plums, its ends are more pointed and the groove is less pronounced. [6]
The red-brown wood is used in fine cabinetry.
The fruit, which ripens in August and September in the Northern Hemisphere, is a popular seasonal table fruit. It is also used for making prunes.
Prune plums hold their form well at oven temperatures and are much used in baking, [7] for example in tarts such as quetschentaart and zwetschgenkuchen . They are the sole ingredient in the traditional powidl jam of Austria and the Czech Republic, and the main ingredient in schmootsch, a similar but spiced jam from Silesia. Fermented zwetschgen are distilled to make eaux de vie : zwetschgenwasser or zwetsch (in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland), zwetschgeler (in South Tyrol, Italy), and quetsch (in Alsace, France). Carlsbad plums are a candied zwetschgen confection named after Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary) in the Czech Republic. Szilvásgombóc and zwetschkenknödel are potato dumplings with a zwetschgen filling in Hungary and Austria respectively, served as a sweet main course or as a dessert. At Christmas markets in Germany, for example the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, a zwetschgenmännla ("little zwetschge man") or zwetschgenweibla ("little zwetschge woman"), with a walnut head, a body of dried figs, and limbs of prunes (dried zwetschgen), is a popular treat.
Examples of varieties are 'Seneca', 'Stanley', 'Fellenberg', Prunier d'Ente (also known as d'Agen), and Prunier Perdrigone.
More than a hundred varieties of prune plums are grown in Central Europe. Examples include Cacaks Beste, Elena, Hauszwetschge, and Ortenauer.
The peach is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others, nectarines.
An apricot is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus Prunus.
A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus. Dried plums are most often called prunes, though in the United States they may be just labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century.
In botany, a drupe is an indehiscent type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a single shell of hardened endocarp with a seed (kernel) inside. These fruits usually develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries.
Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds.
Prunus cerasus is a species of Prunus in the subgenus Cerasus (cherries), native to much of Europe, North Africa and West Asia. It is closely related to the sweet cherry, but has a fruit that is more acidic. Its sour pulp is edible.
Prunus spinosa, called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Pacific Northwest and New England regions of the United States.
Slivovitz is a fruit spirit made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit. Slivovitz is produced in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, both commercially and privately. Primary producers include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. In the Balkans, slivovitz is considered a kind of rakia. In Hungary it is considered a kind of pálinka, but in Romania and Moldova it is considered pălincă, similar to țuică. In Czechia, Slovakia, Galicia, and Carpathian-Ruthenia it is considered Pálenka. UNESCO put it in a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists in 2022 on request of the country of geographic origin Serbia.
The greengages are a group of cultivars of the common European plum. The first true greengage came from a green-fruited wild plum which originated in Iran (Persia). 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.
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. It is now also grown in fruit orchards in Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Israel, the United States, and Australia.
Plum pox, also known as sharka, is the most devastating viral disease of stone fruit from the genus Prunus. The disease is caused by the plum pox virus (PPV), and the different strains may infect a variety of stone fruit species including peaches, apricots, plums, nectarine, almonds, and sweet and tart cherries. Wild and ornamental species of Prunus may also become infected by some strains of the virus.
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 tomentosa is a species of Prunus native to northern and western China, Korea, Mongolia, and possibly northern India. Common names for Prunus tomentosa include Nanjing cherry, Korean cherry, Manchu cherry, downy cherry, Shanghai cherry, Ando cherry, mountain cherry, Chinese bush cherry, and Chinese dwarf cherry.
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.
Damassine is a clear, fruit spirit, distilled from the red damson plum, produced exclusively in the Swiss Republic and Canton of Jura following appellation d'origine protégée (AOP) guidelines that require specific sourcing and production practices. Damassine is also considered an eau de vie, more specifically an eau de vie de prunes, and is commonly referred to as a fruit brandy contrary to the regulation defining it as a fruit spirit.
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.
Pickled fruit refers to fruit that has been pickled. Pickling is the process of food preservation by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. Many types of fruit are pickled. Some examples include peaches, apples, crabapples, pears, plums, grapes, currants, tomatoes and olives. Vinegar may also be prepared from fruit, such as apple cider vinegar.
Plum cake refers to a wide range of cakes usually made with dried fruits such as currants, raisins, sultanas, or prunes, and also sometimes with fresh fruits. There is a wide range of popular plum cakes and puddings. Since the meaning of the word "plum" has changed over time, many items referred to as plum cakes and popular in England since at least the eighteenth century have now become known as fruitcake. The English variety of plum cake also exists on the European mainland, but may vary in ingredients and consistency. British colonists and missionaries brought the dried fruit variety of cake with them, for example, in British India where it was served around the time of the Christmas holiday season. In America's Thirteen Colonies, where it became associated with elections, one version came to be called "election cake".