1 66 ROSE FAMILY 



The fruit is used to flavor alcoholic liquors and sometimes fermented 

 and made into a liquor. The wood is close grained, hard, strong, reddish 

 brown in color, a cubic foot weighs 36 lbs. It is used in cabinet making 

 and is capable of a very high polish, flowers in May, fruit ripe Aug. -Sept. 



Prunus nigra Alton 1789 Canada Plum Wild Plum 



A shrub or small tree 2-7 meters (6-21 ft.) high, armed with thorns; 

 bark brownish gray, exfoliating in plates; leaves oval to broadly ovate, 

 obtuse or slightly cordate at the base, long acuminate at the apex, crenate- 

 serrate, the teeth usually gland-tipped, pubescent when young, 7-13 cm. 

 long, 3-7 cm. wide; petioles 1-1.5 cm. long, with 1 or 2 red glands near 

 the base; flowers in lateral umbels, opening before the leaves, 2.5-3 cm. 

 broad; calyx lobes glandular serrate, glabrous within; petals white, pink- 

 ish tinged towards the base, broadly obovate, 1.2-1.4 cm. long; stamens 

 pinkish tinged; fruit orange, pink or yellow, sub-globose or compressed 

 ovoid, with little or no bloom, 2.5 cm. long, stone oval, compressed or 

 flattened : nigra, black. 



River banks and thickets. In the eastern part of the state from 

 north to south, infrequent. Distributed from Newfoundland and New 

 England westward to the Great Lakes, Lake Winnepeg and south to Iowa. 



The fruit is very delicious, rather firm fleshed, used for jellies and 

 preserves. The wood close grained, hard and heavy, reddish brown in 

 color and weighs 43 lbs. Flowers in May, fruits in August. 



Prunus americana Marshall 1785 Wild Plum 



A shrub or a small tree, 3-10 meters (9-30 ft.) high; branches more 

 or less thorny ; bark thick and rough, exfoliating in irregular plates ; 

 leaves ovate or obovate rounded at the base, long acuminate at the apex, 

 sharply and doubly serrate, the teeth bristle-tipped, not glandular, 

 pubescent when young, glabrous or nearly so when mature, 4-10 cm. long, 

 2-5 cm. wide; petioles with or without glands, about 1 cm. long; flowers 

 in sessile, lateral umbels, opening before the leaves, white, 1.5-2.5 em. 

 broad, pedicels 1.5-2.5 cm. long; calyx lobes entire, hairy on the inner 

 surface; petals narrowly obovate, about 1 cm. long; fruit subglobose, red 

 or yellow, 1.5-2 cm. in diameter, bloom light or none: americana, 

 American. 



Common in thickets, along roadsides, riverbanks, etc., throughout the 

 state. Distributed from Conn, to Fla., west to Tex., New Mexico, north- 

 ern Mexico, northward to Colorado and Montana. 



