Prunus maritima

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Prunus maritima
Prunus maritima.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Prunus
Subgenus: Prunus subg. Prunus
Section: Prunus sect. Prunocerasus
Species:
P. maritima
Binomial name
Prunus maritima
Synonyms [2]
  • Prunus acuminataHook.f.
  • Prunus acuminataMichx.
  • Prunus gravesiiSmall
  • Prunus maritima var. gravesii(Small) G.J.Anderson
  • Prunus declinataMarsh.
  • Prunus lancifoliaClav.
  • Prunus littoralisBigel.
  • Prunus poiretianaHeynh.
  • Prunus pubescensPursh
  • Prunus pygmaeaWilld.
  • Prunus reclinataBosc ex Spach
  • Prunus sphaericaWilld.

Prunus maritima, the beach plum, [3] is a species of plum native to the East Coast of the United States. It is a choice wild edible and its few pests and salt tolerance make it a resilient fruit crop for degraded lands and urban soils.

Contents

Description

Prunus maritima is a deciduous shrub, in its natural sand dune habitat growing 1–2 meters (3+126+12 feet) tall, although it can grow larger, up to 4 m (13 ft) tall, when cultivated in gardens. The leaves are alternate, elliptical, 3–7 centimeters (1+142+34 inches) long and 2–4 cm (341+12 in) broad, with a sharply toothed margin. They are green on top and pale below, becoming showy red or orange in the autumn. The flowers are 1–1.5 cm (3858 in) in diameter, with five white petals and large yellow anthers. The fruit is an edible drupe 1.5–2 cm (5834 in) in diameter in the wild plant, red, yellow, blue, or nearly black. [4] [5]

The plant is salt tolerant and cold hardy. It prefers the full sun and well-drained soil. It spreads roots by putting out suckers but in coarse soil puts down a taproot. In dunes it is often partly buried in drifting sand. It blooms in mid-May and June. The fruit ripens in August and early September.

The species is endangered in Maine, where it is in serious decline due to commercial development of its beach habitats. [4]

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Marshall in 1785 as Prunus maritima, the "Sea side Plumb". [6] A few sources cite Wangenheim as the author, [7] though Wangenheim's publication dates to 1787, two years later than Marshall's.

A plant with rounded leaves, of which only a single specimen has ever been found in the wild, has been described as P. maritima var. gravesii(Small) G.J.Anderson, [8] though its taxonomic status is questionable, and it may be better considered a cultivar P. maritima 'Gravesii'. [9] The original plant, found in Connecticut, died in the wild in about 2000, but it is maintained in cultivation from rooted cuttings. [8]

Distribution and habitat

The species can be found from Maine south to Maryland. [10] [11] Although sometimes listed as extending north to Canada's New Brunswick, the species is not known from collections there and does not appear in the most authoritative works on the flora of that province. [12]

Uses

The species is grown commercially for fruit and value-added products like jam. [13] Taste of ripe fruit is prevailingly sweet, though individual bushes range in flavor and some are sour or slightly bitter. About the size of grapes, beach plums are much smaller in size when compared to the longer cultivated Asian varieties found in the supermarket, though are resilient to many North American stone fruit pests, such as black knot fungus. A number of cultivars have been selected for larger and better-flavored fruit, including Resigno, Jersey Gem (Rutgers), [14] ECOS, Eastham, Hancock and Squibnocket. [15]

Natali Vineyards in Goshen, New Jersey, produces a wine from beach plums. [16] Greenhook Ginsmiths in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, makes a gin flavored with beach plums. [17]

The seed pits of the fruits are toxic due to their hydrocyanic acid content. [18]

Culture

Places named after the beach plum include Plum Island, Massachusetts, Plum Island, New York, Plum Cove Beach in Lanesville, Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Beach Plum Island State Park in Sussex County, Delaware.[ citation needed ]

Fresh and dried, it was used extensively by Native Americans and eventually colonists. It is experiencing a revival in popularity with the resurgence of foraging, the local food movement, and the prominence of native species selection in permaculture design.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apricot</span> Cultivated fruit

An apricot is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus Prunus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plum</span> Edible fruit

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherry blossom</span> Blossom of the cherry tree

The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in Prunus subgenus Cerasus. Sakura usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of Prunus serrulata, not trees grown for their fruit. Cherry blossoms have been described as having a vanilla-like smell, which is mainly attributed to coumarin.

<i>Prunus spinosa</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

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.

<i>Prunus virginiana</i> Species of plant

Prunus virginiana, commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, and western chokecherry, is a species of bird cherry native to North America.

<i>Prunus cerasifera</i> Species of plum

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.

<i>Prunus salicina</i> Species of tree

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.

<i>Prunus pumila</i> North American species of cherry in the rose family

Prunus pumila, commonly called sand cherry, is a North American species of cherry in the rose family. It is widespread in eastern and central Canada from New Brunswick west to Saskatchewan and the northern United States from Maine to Montana, south as far as Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, and Virginia, with a few isolated populations in Tennessee and Utah. It grows in sandy locations such as shorelines and dunes.

<i>Prunus nigra</i> Species of tree

Prunus nigra, the Canada plum, Canadian plum, or black plum, is a species of Prunus native to eastern North America.

<i>Prunus americana</i> Species of tree

Prunus americana, commonly called the American plum, wild plum, or Marshall's large yellow sweet plum, is a species of Prunus native to North America from Saskatchewan and Idaho south to New Mexico and east to Québec, Maine and Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blueberry</span> Section of plants

Blueberry is a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) and cultivated (highbush)—are all native to North America. The highbush varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s.

<i>Prunus avium</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya. The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.

<i>Prunus alleghaniensis</i> Species of tree

Prunus alleghaniensis, the Allegheny plum, is a species of New World plum, native to the Appalachian Mountains.

Prunus eremophila, also known by its common name Mojave Desert plum, is a rare species of plum native to California.

<i>Prunus angustifolia</i> Species of tree

Prunus angustifolia, known commonly as Chickasaw plum, Cherokee plum, Florida sand plum, sandhill plum, or sand plum, is a North American species of plum-bearing tree. It was originally cultivated by Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans. The species' name angustifolia refers to its narrow leaves. It became the official state fruit of Kansas in 2022.

<i>Prunus rivularis</i> Species of tree

Prunus rivularis, known variously by the common names creek plum, hog plum, or wild-goose plum is a thicket-forming shrub. It prefers calcareous clay soil or limestone-based woodland soils. This deciduous plant belongs to the rose family, Rosaceae, and is found mainly in the central United States. It is a shrub consisting of slender stems with umbel clusters of white blossoms. The fruit is a drupe that resembles a large berry; though it has a bitter taste, it serves as a source of food for birds and other wildlife. "Prunus" is Latin for plum, whereas "rivularis" means being near a stream.

Prunus persica × Prunus americana is the hybrid between the peach Prunus persica and the wild American plum Prunus americana.

<i>Prunus simonii</i> Species of tree

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.

<i>Prunus texana</i> Species of tree

Prunus texana, called peachbush, Texas almond cherry, Texas peachbush, sand plum, peach bush, duraznillo and wild peach is native to central and western Texas. Although it looks like peach, it actually belongs to Prunus sect. Prunocerasus together with other North American plum species.

<i>Prunus umbellata</i> Species of tree

Prunus umbellata, called flatwoods plum, hog plum and sloe plum, is a plum species native to the United States from Virginia, south to Florida, and west to Texas.

References

  1. Pollard, R.P.; Rhodes, L.; Maxted, N. (2016). "Prunus maritima". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T50475932A50475935. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T50475932A50475935.en . Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  2. "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species" . Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  3. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Prunus maritima". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 Maine Department of Conservation Natural Areas Program: Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan ISBN   0-333-47494-5.
  6. Marshall, H. (1785). Arbustrum Americanum: The American Grove, Or, An Alphabetical Catalogue of Forest Trees and Shrubs, Natives of the American United States, Arranged According to the Linnaean System, p. 112. Joseph Crukshank, Philadelphia.
  7. Grier, N. M., & Grier, C. R. (1929). A List of Plants Growing Under Cultivation in the Vicinity of Cold Spring Harbor, New York. American Midland Naturalist 11: 307–387.
  8. 1 2 Center for Plant Conservation: Prunus maritima var. gravesii Archived 2009-08-25 at the Wayback Machine
  9. University of Connecticut: Prunus maritima 'Gravesii' Archived 2007-01-21 at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Prunus maritima". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  11. United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile: Prunus maritima
  12. Hinds, Harold R., 2002, Flora of New Brunswick, 2nd ed., Fredericton, New Brunswick.
  13. Cornell University Department of Horticulture: Beach Plum
  14. Jonathan Damery. "Recalling Plums from the Wild" (PDF).
  15. "Prunus maritima". University of Connecticut. Archived from the original on 2007-08-04.
  16. Preston, Marjorie (20 October 2010). "To save coastal dunes, here's a plum good idea". Shore News Today. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  17. Greenhook Ginsmiths. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  18. Snell, S.C. (September 2018). "Plant Guide: Beach Plum Prunus maritima Marshall" (PDF). Cape May, New Jersey: United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, Cape May Plant Materials Center. Retrieved 1 January 2024.

Further reading