''Prunus maritima'', the beach plum, is a species of

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...

native to the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

. It is a choice wild edible and its few pests and salt tolerance make it a resilient fruit crop for degraded lands and urban soils.

Description

''Prunus maritima'' is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

, in its natural

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

habitat growing tall, although it can grow larger, up to tall, when cultivated in gardens. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are alternate, elliptical, long and broad, with a sharply toothed margin. They are green on top and pale below, becoming showy red or orange in the autumn. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are in diameter, with five white petals and large yellow

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is an edible

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

in diameter in the wild plant, red, yellow, blue, or nearly black.Maine Department of Conservation Natural Areas Program: Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan . The plant is salt-tolerant and cold-hardy. It prefers the full sun and well-drained soil. It spreads roots by putting out

sucker Sucker may refer to: General use * Lollipop or sucker, a type of confection * Sucker (slang), a slang term for a very gullible person * Hard candy ** Cough drop ** Mint (candy) Biology * Sucker (botany), a term for a shoot that arises undergro ...

s but in coarse soil puts down a

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...

. In dunes it is often partly buried in drifting sand. It blooms in mid-May and June. The fruit ripens in August and early September. The species is endangered in Maine, where it is in serious decline due to commercial development of its beach habitats.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Marshall in 1785 as ''Prunus maritima'', the "Sea side Plumb". A few sources cite Wangenheim as the author, though Wangenheim's publication dates to 1787, two years later than Marshall's. A plant with rounded leaves, of which only a single specimen has ever been found in the wild, has been described as ''P. maritima'' var. ''gravesii'' (Small) G.J.Anderson,Center for Plant Conservation
''Prunus maritima'' var. ''gravesii''
though its taxonomic status is questionable, and it may be better considered a

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

''P. maritima'' 'Gravesii'.University of Connecticut
''Prunus maritima'' 'Gravesii'
The original plant, found in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, died in the wild in about 2000, but it is maintained in cultivation from rooted cuttings.

Distribution and habitat

The species can be found from

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

south to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Although sometimes listed as extending north to Canada's

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, the species is not known from collections there and does not appear in the most authoritative works on the flora of that province.Hinds, Harold R., 2002, ''Flora of New Brunswick'', 2nd ed., Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Uses

The species is grown commercially for fruit and value added products like

jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and entertai ...

. Taste of ripe fruit is prevailingly sweet, though individual bushes range in flavor and some are sour or slightly bitter. About the size of grapes, beach plums are much smaller in size when compared to the longer cultivated Asian varieties found in the supermarket, though are resilient to many North American stone fruit pests, such as black knot fungus. A number of

s have been selected for larger and better-flavored fruit, including Resigno, Wild Goose, ECOS, Eastham, Hancock and Squibnocket.University of Connecticut
''Prunus maritima''

Natali Vineyards Natali Vineyards is a winery in the Goshen section of Middle Township (mailing address is Cape May Court House) in Cape May County, New Jersey, USA. Formerly a pasture for horses, the vineyard was first planted in 2001, and opened to the publ ...

in Goshen, New Jersey, produces a wine from beach plums. Greenhook Ginsmiths in

Greenpoint, Brooklyn Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn� ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, makes a gin flavored with beach plums.Greenhook Ginsmiths
Retrieved 22 July 2017.

Culture

Places named after the beach plum include

Plum Island, Massachusetts Plum Island is a barrier island located off the northeast coast of Massachusetts, north of Cape Ann, in the United States. It is approximately in length. The island is named for the wild beach plum shrubs that grow on its dunes, but is also ...

Plum Island, New York Plum Island is an island in the town of Southold in Suffolk County, New York. The island is situated in Gardiners Bay, east of Orient Point, off the eastern end of the North Fork coast of Long Island. It is about long and wide at its wid ...

, Plum Cove Beach in Lanesville,

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...

, and Beach Plum Island State Park in

Sussex County, Delaware Sussex County is located in the southern part of the U.S. state of Delaware, on the Delmarva Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 237,378. The county seat is Georgetown. The first European settlement in the state of Delaware w ...

. Fresh and dried, it was used extensively by Native Americans and eventually colonists. It is experiencing a revival in popularity with the resurgence of foraging, the local food movement, and the prominence of native species selection in permaculture design.

Gallery

Image:BeachPlums.jpg, Ripe beach plums at the North Beach area of Sandy Hook, New Jersey Image:Beach_Plum_Shrubs_Cape_Cod_MA.JPG, Beach plum blooms at Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts Image:ResignoBeachPlum.jpg, Resigno Cultivar in Philadelphia garden, Pennsylvania File:Beach plum (4411069683).jpg, Beach plums in early stages of bloom

References

External links

*
Beach Plum @ Cornell University
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2081045 maritima Plants described in 1789 Trees of the Northeastern United States