''Prunus maritima'', the beach plum, is a species of plum native to the East Coast of the United States. 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, ...

shrub, 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 o ...

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

, 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 ...

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 ente ...

. 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 in Goshen, New Jersey, produces a wine from beach plums. Greenhook Ginsmiths in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, 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, New York, Plum Cove Beach in Lanesville, Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Beach Plum Island State Park in Sussex County, Delaware. 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