372 TREES IN" WINTER 



CANADA PLUM 

 Red, Horse or Wild Plum. 



Prunus nigra Ait. 

 P. americana, var. nigra Waugh 



HABIT — A shrub or small tree 20-25 ft. in height with a trunk 

 diameter of 5-8 inches; with contorted branches and more or less zigzag 

 branchlets forming a low spreading head. It tends to sucker freely 

 forming low thickets. 



BARK — On young trunks and branches dark brown with prominent 

 raised lenticels which are horizontally slightly elongated; at first 

 smooth but soon splitting and curling back in thick grayish-brown 

 layered plates exposing the rough scaly bark below. 



TW^IGS — Slender, smooth, reddish-brown, often more or less covered 

 with a grayish skin, bitter aromatic, lateral spiny spurs generally 

 present. LENTICELS — scattered, large and rather conspicuous pale 

 dots. 



LEAP-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, broadly crescent- 

 shaped. STIPULE-SCARS— indistinct or absent. BUNDLE-SCARS — 

 3, often inconspicuous. 



BUDS — Terminal bud absent, lateral buds about 4-8 mm. long, conical, 

 narrow-pointed, grayish-brown; collateral buds sometimes present. 

 BUD-SCALES — triangular, pale and thin on the margins, generally hairy 

 at the apex. 



FRlTiT — A smooth-skinned drupe with smooth stone. 



COMPARISONS — The Plums are distinguished from the other members 

 of the genus Prunus by the absence of a terminal bud. The Canada 

 Plum so far as one can judge from the material investigated is 

 distinguishable by its larger buds from the American Plum, of which 

 it is considered by some only as a variety. 



DISTRIBUTION — Native along streams and in thickets, often spon- 

 taneous around dwellings and along fences. From Newfoundland 

 through the valley of the St. Lawrence to Lake Manitoba; rare south 

 of New England; west to Wisconsin. Has given rise to some valuable 

 fruit-bearing varieties in cultivation. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — abundant in the northern sections and 

 common throughout; New Hampshire and Vermont — frequent, especially 

 in the northern sections; Massachusetts — occasional; Connecticut — rare, 

 Norfolk, a few trees about an abandoned garden; Oxford; Rhode Island — 

 not reported. 



WOOD — Heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, rich, bright reddish- 

 brown with thin lighter colored sapwood. 



