Prunus maritima
Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
Prunus maritima, the beach plum,[1] 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 shrub, in its natural sand dune habitat growing Script error: No such module "convert". tall, although it can grow larger, up to Script error: No such module "convert". tall, when cultivated in gardens. The leaves are alternate, elliptical, Script error: No such module "convert". long and Script error: No such module "convert". broad, with a sharply toothed margin. They are green on top and pale below, becoming showy red or orange in the autumn. The flowers are Script error: No such module "convert". in diameter, with five white petals and large yellow anthers. The fruit is an edible drupe Script error: No such module "convert". in diameter in the wild plant, red, yellow, blue, or nearly black.[2][3]
The plant is salt tolerant and cold hardy. It prefers the full sun and well-drained soil. It spreads roots by putting out suckers but in coarse soil puts down a taproot. 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.[2]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by Marshall in 1785 as Prunus maritima, the "Sea side Plumb".[4] A few sources cite Wangenheim as the author,[5] 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,[6] though its taxonomic status is questionable, and it may be better considered a cultivar P. maritima 'Gravesii'.[7] The original plant, found in Connecticut, died in the wild in about 2000, but it is maintained in cultivation from rooted cuttings.[6]
Distribution and habitat
The species can be found from Maine south to Maryland.[8][9] Although sometimes listed as extending north to Canada's New Brunswick, the species is not known from collections there and does not appear in the most authoritative works on the flora of that province.[10]
Uses
The species is grown commercially for fruit and value-added products like jam.[11] 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 cultivars have been selected for larger and better-flavored fruit, including Resigno, Jersey Gem (Rutgers),[12] ECOS, Eastham, Hancock and Squibnocket.[13]
Natali Vineyards in Goshen, New Jersey, produces a wine from beach plums.[14] Greenhook Ginsmiths in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, makes a gin flavored with beach plums.[15]
The seed pits of the fruits are toxic due to their hydrocyanic acid content.[16]
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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Fresh and dried, beach plums were used extensively by Native Americans and eventually colonists.
The beach plum is experiencing a revival in popularity with the resurgence of foraging, the local food movement, the La Croix flavor, and the prominence of native species selection in permaculture design.
Gallery
-
Ripe beach plums at the North Beach area of Sandy Hook, New Jersey
-
Beach plum blooms at Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts
-
Resigno Cultivar in Philadelphia garden, Pennsylvania
-
Beach plums in early stages of bloom
-
A Beach Plum on the eastern end of Long Island.
.jpg){kind=link}
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Script error: No such module "template wrapper".
- ↑ a b Maine Department of Conservation Natural Areas Program: Template:Webarchive
- ↑ Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan Template:ISBN.
- ↑ Marshall, H. (1785). Arbustrum Americanum: The American Grove, Or, An Alphabetical Catalogue of Forest Trees and Shrubs, Natives of the American United States, Arranged According to the Linnaean System, p. 112. Joseph Crukshank, Philadelphia.
- ↑ Grier, N. M., & Grier, C. R. (1929). A List of Plants Growing Under Cultivation in the Vicinity of Cold Spring Harbor, New York. American Midland Naturalist 11: 307–387.
- ↑ a b Center for Plant Conservation: Prunus maritima var. gravesii Template:Webarchive
- ↑ University of Connecticut: Prunus maritima 'Gravesii' Template:Webarchive
- ↑ Template:GRIN
- ↑ United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile: Prunus maritima
- ↑ Hinds, Harold R., 2002, Flora of New Brunswick, 2nd ed., Fredericton, New Brunswick.
- ↑ Cornell University Department of Horticulture: Beach Plum
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Greenhook Ginsmiths. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Further reading
- Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".