Wild Plum
Scientific name: Prunus domestica L.
Diagnostic features
Deciduous large shrub or tree to 8(12)m.
Leaves 3-8cm, obovate to elliptic.
Flowers appearing with leaves, mostly 2-3.
Petals white.
Fruit varied in size, shape and colour, with weak to strong bloom.
Chromosome number: (2n=48).
Habitat
Introduced-naturalized; hedges, copses, scrub and waste ground.
Distribution
Throughout most of British Isles; Southwest Asia.
This species is keyed out on Page 2326 in the Text Key.
Note
Two or three subspecies are often recognized:
a. Prunus domestica L. subsp. domestica (Plum) with sparsely pubescent spineless twigs and usually large fruits with very flattened stone;
b. Prunus domestica L. subsp. insititia (L.) Bonnier & Layens (Bullace, Damson), with densely pubescent often spiny twigs and small fruits with less flattened stone; and
c. Prunus domestica L. subsp. italica (Borkh.) Gams ex Hegi (Synonym:Prunusx italica Borkh.) (Greengage), ± intermediate. However, these have been so much hybridized that character-correlation has partly broken down and the subspecies are often scarcely discernible.
Hybrids
- Prunus x fruticans Weihe (= Prunus spinosa x Prunus domestica) occurs in hedges sporadically throughout England; it is intermediate, fertile and variable. Prunus spinosa var. macrocarpa Wallr. probably belongs here. |
