Plums African Rose - whole, halved and slice

A plum is a

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 partic ...

of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus''''.'' Dried plums are called

prune A prune is a dried plum, most commonly from the European plum (''Prunus domestica''). Not all plum species or varieties can be dried into prunes. A prune is the firm-fleshed fruit (plum) of '' Prunus domestica'' varieties that have a high so ...

Plum blossom on the first day of spring - geograph

History

Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found in the wild, only around human settlements: ''

Prunus domestica ''Prunus domestica'', the European plum is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. A deciduous tree, it includes many varieties of the fruit trees known as plums in English, though not all plums belong to this species. The greengag ...

'' has been traced to East European and Caucasian mountains, while ''

Prunus salicina ''Prunus salicina'' ( syn. ''Prunus triflora'' or ''Prunus thibetica''), commonly called the Japanese plum or Chinese plum, is a small deciduous tree native to China. It is now also grown in fruit orchards in Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Israel, the U ...

'' and '' Prunus simonii'' originated in China. Plum remains have been found in

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

age archaeological sites along with olives, grapes and figs. According to

Ken Albala Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific (United States) University of the Pacific (Pacific or UOP) is a private Methodist-affiliated university with its main campus in Stockton, California, and graduate campuses i ...

, plums originated in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. They were brought to Britain from Asia. An article on plum tree cultivation in

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...

(southern Spain) appears in

Ibn al-'Awwam Ibn al-'Awwam ( ar, ابن العوام), also called Abu Zakariya Ibn al-Awwam ( ar, أبو زكريا بن العوام), was a Muslim Arab agriculturist who flourished at Seville (modern-day southern Spain) in the later 12th century. He wrote a ...

's 12th-century agricultural work, ''Book on Agriculture''.

Etymology and names

The name plum derived from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

''plume'' "plum, plum tree", borrowed from Germanic or

Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550, there was no overarc ...

, derived from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

' and ultimately from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

''proumnon'', itself believed to be a loanword from an unknown language of

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. In the late 18th century, the word ''plum'' was used to indicate "something desirable", probably in reference to tasty fruit pieces in

dessert Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and most parts o ...

Description

Plums are a diverse group of species. The commercially important plum trees are medium-sized, usually pruned to height. The tree is of medium hardiness. Without pruning, the trees can reach in height and spread across . They blossom in different months in different parts of the world; for example, in about January in Taiwan and early April in the United Kingdom. Fruits are usually of medium size, between in diameter, globose to oval. The flesh is firm and juicy. The fruit's peel is smooth, with a natural waxy surface that adheres to the flesh. The plum is a

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 ...

, meaning its fleshy fruit surrounds a single hard fruitstone which encloses the fruit's seed.

Cultivation and uses

File:16-09-17-WikiLovesCocktails-Zutaten-Img0163.jpg, Japanese or Chinese plum File:Damson plum fruit.jpg, Damsons (European plum) File:Slivka.JPG, Prune plums (European plum) File:Prunus domestica 'Reine Victoria'.jpg, Victoria plums (European plum) File:Greengages 0.jpg, Greengages (European plum) File:Mirabellen.jpg, Mirabelles (European plum) File:Cherry plums.jpg, Myrobalan or cherry plums Japanese or Chinese plums are large and juicy with a long shelf life, and therefore dominate the fresh fruit market. They are usually clingstone and not suitable for making prunes. They are cultivars of ''

'' or its hybrids. The cultivars developed in the US are mostly hybrids of ''P. salicina'' with ''P. simonii'' and ''P. cerasifera''. Although these cultivars are often called Japanese plums, two of the three parents (''P. salicina'' and ''P. simonii'') originated from China and one (''P. cerasifera'') from Eurasia. Prune

In some parts of Europe, European plum (''

'') is also common in fresh fruit market. It has both dessert (eating) or culinary (cooking)

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 ...

s, which include: *

Damson The damson () or damson plum ('' Prunus domestica'' subsp. ''insititia'', or sometimes ''Prunus insititia''),M. H. Porche"Sorting ''Prunus'' names" in "Multilingual multiscript plant names database, University of Melbourne. Plantnames.unimelb.e ...

(purple or black skin, green flesh, clingstone, astringent) *

Prune plum The prune plum (''Prunus domestica'' subsp. ''domestica'') is a fruit-bearing tree, or its fruit. It is a subspecies of the plum ''Prunus domestica''. The freestone fruit is similar to, but distinct from, the clingstone damson (''Prunus domesti ...

(usually oval, freestone, sweet, fresh eaten or used to make prunes) *

Greengage The greengages are a group of cultivars of the common European plum. The first true greengage came from a green-fruited wild plum ( fa , گوجه‌سبز, Gowjehsabz) which originated in Iran (Persia). Greengages are grown in temperate areas ...

(firm, green flesh and skin even when ripe) * Mirabelle (dark yellow, predominantly grown in northeast

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) *

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

(yellow flesh with a red or mottled skin) * Yellowgage or golden plum (similar to greengage, but yellow) In West Asia, myrobalan plum or cherry plum (''

Prunus cerasifera __NOTOC__ ''Prunus cerasifera'' is a species of plum known by the common names cherry plum and myrobalan plum.''Prunus'' × ''rossica''). When it flowers in the early spring, a plum tree will be covered in

blossom In botany, blossoms are the flowers of stone fruit trees (genus ''Prunus'') and of some other plants with a similar appearance that flower profusely for a period of time in spring. Colloquially, flowers of orange are referred to as such as ...

s, and in a good year approximately 50% of the flowers will be pollinated and become plums. Flowering starts after 80

growing degree day Growing degree days (GDD), also called growing degree units (GDUs), are a heuristic tool in phenology. GDD are a measure of heat accumulation used by horticulturists, gardeners, and farmers to predict plant and animal development rates such as the ...

s. If the weather is too dry, the plums will not develop past a certain stage, but will fall from the tree while still tiny, green buds, and if it is unseasonably wet or if the plums are not harvested as soon as they are ripe, the fruit may develop a fungal condition called brown rot. Brown rot is not toxic, and some affected areas can be cut out of the fruit, but unless the rot is caught immediately, the fruit will no longer be edible. Plum is used as a food plant by the

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e of some

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 families and 46 superfamilies, 10 percent of the total described speci ...

, including

November moth The November moth (''Epirrita dilutata'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It can be found in the Palearctic realm in western Europe from central Scandinavia ...

, willow beauty and short-cloaked moth. The taste of the plum fruit ranges from sweet to tart; the skin itself may be particularly tart. It is juicy and can be eaten fresh or used in jam-making or other recipes. Plum juice can be fermented into

plum wine Fruit wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from a variety of base ingredients (other than grapes); they may also have additional flavors taken from fruits, flowers, and herbs. This definition is sometimes broadened to include any alcohol ...

. In central England, a cider-like alcoholic beverage known as plum jerkum is made from plums. Dried, salted plums are used as a snack, sometimes known as '' saladito'' or ''salao''. Various flavors of dried plum are available at Chinese grocers and specialty stores worldwide. They tend to be much drier than the standard prune. Cream,

ginseng Ginseng () is the root of plants in the genus '' Panax'', such as Korean ginseng ('' P. ginseng''), South China ginseng ('' P. notoginseng''), and American ginseng ('' P. quinquefolius''), typically characterized by the presence of ginsenosides ...

, spicy, and salty are among the common varieties.

Licorice Liquorice (British English) or licorice ( American English) ( ; also ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted. The l ...

is generally used to intensify the flavor of these plums and is used to make salty plum drinks and toppings for shaved ice or '' baobing''. Pickled plums are another type of preserve available in Asia and international specialty stores. The Japanese variety, called ''

umeboshi Umeboshi ( Japanese: 梅干し, pronounced , literally 'dried ume') are pickled (brined) '' ume'' fruits common in Japan. The word ''umeboshi'' is often translated into English as 'salted Japanese plums', 'Japanese plums' or 'preserved plums ...

'', is often used for rice balls, called ''onigiri'' or ''omusubi''. The '' ume'', from which ''umeboshi'' are made, is more closely related, however, to the

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus '' Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are al ...

than to the plum. In the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

, plum is converted into an alcoholic drink named '' slivovitz'' (plum brandy, called in Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin or Serbian ''

šljivovica Slivovitz is a fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy). If anyone else has a dictionary of some Slavic language that translates your word for slivovitz as "plum brandy", please ...

''). A large number of plums, of the Damson variety, are also grown in Hungary, where they are called ''szilva'' and are used to make ''

lekvar A fruit butter is a sweet spread made of fruit cooked to a paste, then lightly sweetened. It falls into the same category as jelly and jam. Apple butter and plum butter are common examples. Fruit pastes, such as quince cheese are popular in La ...

'' (a plum paste jam), '' palinka'' (traditional fruit brandy), plum dumplings, and other foods. In Romania, 80% of the plum production is used to create a similar brandy, called '' țuică''.România e cel mai mare producător de prune din UE. Cele mai multe fructe folosesc la ţuică și palincă
/ref> As with many other members of the rose family, plum kernels contain

cyanogenic glycosides In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosi ...

, including

amygdalin Amygdalin (from Ancient Greek: ' "almond") is a naturally occurring chemical compound found in many plants, most notably in the seeds (kernels) of apricots, bitter almonds, apples, peaches, cherries, and plums. Amygdalin is classified as a cy ...

. Prune kernel oil is made from the fleshy inner part of the pit of the plum. Though not available commercially, the wood of plum trees is used by hobbyists and other private woodworkers for musical instruments, knife handles, inlays, and similar small projects.

Production

In 2019, global production of plums (data combined with

sloe ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalisation (biology), naturalized ...

s) was 12.6 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s, led by China with 56% of the world total (table).

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

were secondary producers.

Nutrition

Raw plums are 87% water, 11%

carbohydrates In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or m ...

, 1%

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

, and less than 1% fat (table). In a reference serving, raw plums supply of

food energy Food energy is chemical energy that animals (including humans) derive from their food to sustain their metabolism, including their muscular activity. Most animals derive most of their energy from aerobic respiration, namely combining the carbohy ...

and are a moderate source only of

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) ...

(12%

Daily Value The Reference Daily Intake (RDI) used in nutrition labeling on food and dietary supplement products in the U.S. and Canada is the daily intake level of a nutrient that is considered to be sufficient to meet the requirements of 97–98% of healthy ...

), with no other

micronutrient Micronutrients are essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. Micronutrient requirements differ between organisms; for example, huma ...

s in significant content (table).

Species

The numerous species of ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'' are classified into many sections, but not all of them are called plums. Plums include species of sect. ''Prunus'' and sect. ''Prunocerasus'', as well as '' P. mume'' of sect. ''Armeniaca''. Only two plum species, the hexaploid European plum (''

'') and the diploid Japanese plum (''

'' and hybrids), are of worldwide commercial significance. The origin of ''P. domestica'' is uncertain but may have involved P. cerasifera and possibly P. spinosa as ancestors. Other species of plum variously originated in Europe, Asia and America. Sect. ''Prunus'' (

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by thei ...

plums) – leaves in bud rolled inwards; flowers 1–3 together; fruit smooth, often wax-bloomed Sect. ''Prunocerasus'' (

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

plums) – leaves in bud folded inwards; flowers 3–5 together; fruit smooth, often wax-bloomed Sect. ''Armeniaca'' (

s) – leaves in bud rolled inwards; flowers very short-stalked; fruit velvety; treated as a distinct subgenus by some authors In certain parts of the world, some fruits are called plums and are quite different from fruits known as plums in Europe or the Americas. For example, marian plums are popular in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, otherwise also known as ''gandaria'', ''plum mango'', ''ma-praang'', ''ma-yong'', ''ramania'', ''kundang'', ''rembunia'' or ''setar''. Another example is the loquat, also known as Japanese plum and Japanese medlar, as well as ''nispero'', ''bibassier'' and ''wollmispel'' elsewhere. In South Asia and Southeast Asia,

Jambul ''Syzygium cumini'', commonly known as Malabar plum, Java plum, black plum, jamun, jaman, jambul, or jambolan, is an evergreen tropical tree in the flowering plant family Myrtaceae, and favored for its fruit, timber, and ornamental value. It is ...

, a fruit from tropical tree in family

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All sp ...

, is similarly sometimes referred to 'damson plums', and it is different from damson plums found in Europe and Americas. Jambul is also called as ''Java plum'', ''Malabar plum'', ''Jaman'', ''Jamun'', ''Jamblang'', ''Jiwat'', ''Salam'', ''Duhat'', ''Koeli'', ''Jambuláo'' or ''Koriang''.

Gallery

File:Closeup of blackthorn aka sloe aka prunus spinosa sweden 20050924.jpg, Sloe or blackthorn, ''Prunus spinosa'' File:970718-DriedGoldenPlum-IMG 7527-2.jpg, Dried yellow plums File:Black Amber Plum DS.jpg, Black Amber Plum (Japanese or Chinese plum)

References

{{Woodworking Plum

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 ...

Flora of Asia Flora of Europe Flora of North America Medicinal plants Laxatives Drupes