Return to Native Trees of the Southern Rocky Mountains

Forming common and large dense thorny thickets with smooth grey bark, sometimes the Wild plum makes a tree up to 15 feet high with a main stem up to 8 inches in diameter. It is found near streams and in moist ground, in the eastern foothills up to 6000 feet elevation, and across the northeastern plains. Both thickets and trees produce masses of white flowers in May before the leaves appear. In fall the edible fruit ripens, the largest native tree fruit of Colorado.

In fall black bears crash through the plum thickets seeking plums to eat. Since the coming of the earliest pioneers the wild plum has been used in jams, jellies, and pies. Watching the little frosted purple plums going into the Dutch oven, isolated ranchers and farmers delighted in the promise of a fresh fruit cobbler after weeks of canned and preserved stocks. Many apparently "wild" plums were planted by early settlers.

The Latin name is Prunus americana . Chickasaw plum (Prunus angustifolia) is a similar plant whose natural range extends into the southeast corner of Colorado. Its leaves are only 1 to 2 inches long and narrow; the flowers are only about one-third of an inch across.

Leaves: 2 to 3 1/2 inch long and 1 to 1 3/4 inch wide, pointed, doubly toothed, not glossy, dark green above.

Flowers: White, about an inch across; very early blooming, before leaves, usually in early May.

Fruit: 3/4 inch to 1 inch diameter; frosted purple, blue, reddish, or yellow; edible, with a flat seed inside.

Bark: Up to 1/2 inch thick, gray with faint whitish lenticels (horizontal marks), occasionally dark brown with reddish tinge; dark gray and rough or plate-like on older trees