Wild Plum?

[Deleted]

This was one of those weird buys,
... which may turn out to be interesting, after all.

I hope to be able to identify it, when it fruits.

The swapmeet vendor collected plants from the Sierra Madre and said he recognized this as a plum, growing in a ditch.

About 10yrs ago, it was sold to us in a 1g pot, but is now about 15ft tall

2" long thorns apparently grow out, into full branches.

White flowers are small but many, have a slight almond scent.

This sends out runners, wherever there is moisture. It prefers to crawl along the length of a building, but will venture out, into a lawn, if it finds water there.

These small suckers will grow 7' tall in a year, if not cut out. They have all put out blossoms, at the same time as the mother plant

[12540dumont]

Sounds like my mother-in-law, may she rest in peace.

[Deleted]

It prefers to crawl along the length of a building, but will venture out, into a lawn, if it finds water there?

Of which I am aware, we have never actively watered this tenacious tree, btw.

[Drahkk]

Mom-in-law has a wild plum in her front yard that is becoming a clump due to numerous root sprouts becoming trees in their own right. Does yours spread that way, or are the runners above ground? Also, how is the fruit? Hers makes small sour plums, great for jelly but not so much for fresh eating.

MB

[Deleted]

Our runners are below ground, and it is flowering for the first time. I'm not sure how the fruit will be, but the blossoms seem small.

I am just now learning about saving pollen and eventually think it might be interesting to see what kind of Prunus crossbreeds I might get.

[Deleted]

None of the blossoms developed into fruit. Is this something that might pollinized, or is it another fruitless fruit tree?

[richardw]

Ive got a plum that sounds a bit the same,small white flowers which has never grown into a fruit,it also suckers a lot,if it doesn't pull its socks up in the next year or so and grow some fruit its guna be outa here

[templeton]

deg,
my go to for wild european plants is Collins Tree Guide. under plums they list
prunus domestica - no spines
P. spinosa - a suckering bush, shoots finely downy, then almost smooth by winter. leaves, small, slender, 5X2 cm, downy when young. flowers off white.
P.cerasifera- leaves fresh green slender broadest below half way. flowers whiter than spinosa and much earlier
P.domestica var insititia - bulace
also damsons and greengages.

There is self incompatibility in some of these i think.

they also report a number od Prunus cherry sp.,

[Deleted]

I haven't delved into this, very deeply, but the only socalled "fruitless" plums I have turned up, so far, are the ones with purple leaves. This tree has green leaves.

In spite of my experience with the poorly-identified, fruitless pear, I would still like to think that this wild plum might be productive with a pollinizer.

This particular "plum" makes white flowers, smaller than those of common, domesticated varieties. There are lots of flowers, and, to my nose, they have a scent of almonds. 2 inch long thorns eventually grow out, into full branches.

[Deleted]

I'm favoring the P. spinosa ID, not just because of the spines, but because of the smallish flowers.