Plum Botany 15 



AMERICAN SPECIES 



Prunus Americana Marsh. — The American wild plum 

 of the central states. The type distinguished by entire calyx 

 lobes, which are pubescent on the inner surface, stone turgid; 

 leaves oval, or slightly obovate ; petioles mostly without glands. 

 Tree spreading, ragged, thorny, 8-20 feet high; flowers large, 

 white, on slender pedicels ; leaves very coarsely veined, never 

 glossy or shining; fruit more or less flattened upon the sides, 

 firm and meaty, the skin tough and glaucous and never glossy, 

 ripening through yellow to red. Occurs wild from New Jersey 

 and Ohio to Montana and Colorado. It varies southward, in 

 Texas and New Mexico represented mostly by the variety 

 mollis. Represented in such varieties as De Soto, Weaver, 

 Hawkeye and Stoddard. 



Prunus Americana nigra Waugh. — Canada plum. In 

 its extreme forms easily distinguished by the glandular-serrate 

 calyx lobes, glabrous on the inner surface; compressed stone; 

 broadly obconic, dark red on the outer and bright red on the 

 two glands. Flowers large, white, with short, thick peduncles 

 conspicuously marked by the scars left by the falling of the 

 bud scales; pedicels dark red, slender, glabrous; calyx tube 

 broadly obconic, dark red on the outer and bright red on the 

 inner surface; fruit oblong-oval, orange-red; stone nearly oval, 

 compressed. Occurs wild from Newfoundland west to Rainy 

 and Assiniboine rivers in Canada, and commonly in the New 

 England states, where it is found along roadsides and in waste 

 places. Best represented in cultivation by the varieties, Cheney 

 and Aitkin. 



Prunus Americana mollis Torrey and Gray. — Woolly- 

 leaf plum. This form has the leaves and pedicels, and some- 

 times the young branchlets, pubescent. The fruit is usually 

 small, sour and late. Occurs occasionally as far north as Iowa, 

 mixed with the ordinary form of Prunus americana, but is 

 more common southward, especially in Texas. 



The Miner Group Bailey. Prunus hortulana mincri, 

 Bailey. — The Miner-like plums. An ill-defined group, stand- 

 ing between Prunus americana and the Wildgoose group 

 below; most closely resembling the former, but doubtless more 

 or less hybridized with the latter. Leaves dull and thick, with 

 medium-sized, regular, somewhat appressed serrations ; fruit 

 hard, marked with conspicuous dots ; stone usually more or 

 less turgid. 



The Wayland Group, Waugh. — Prunus rivularis Scheele. 

 Prunus hortulana Bailey in part. The Wildgoose group, 

 Bailey, in part. The Wayland-like varieties. Trees fairly 

 strong growers, with long, smooth, bending, willowy 

 branches, the bark usually dark colored; leaves, large 



