I believe I recently located a stand of native prunus nigra aka Canada plum. Pretty exciting!
This website does a really good job of detailing the identifying characteristics of this species vs. other native North American plums: Prunus nigra (Canada Plum)
A handy tip for those that are trying to locate this species in my region (I’m in midcoast Maine), it blooms the same time as the native juneberries aka amalanchier laevis do (this will tell you when to keep your eyes peeled for blooming trees), but have a MUCH showier bloom and don’t have the bronzy leaved backdrop that the juneberries generally get from their young emerging leaves. It appears pure white in passing. So if your zipping by on the road you can do a quick visual I.D. this way, it’s how I stumbled on this patch.
Here are some pics in reference to the above “tip” (please excuse my son’s mess in the background)
Another I.D. clue that I learned very quickly, was that these trees in full bloom smell absolutely amazing! It was the first thing I noticed when I walked into the patch of them.
Here are some pics from the recently found prunus nigra stand:
Also something worth noting is this species can also get very pink blooms and deep red calyx as well, but this particular stand was pure white with just slightly red calyx. I think I may have stumbled on the pink bloomed variety today, but still need to stop and confirm the id.
I plan on watching these trees closely throughout the growing season and hope to aquire both seed and scion to add a patch to my property/ orchards. I’ll keep this thread updated on my progress.
Please do update. I had a house in Maine and it was impossible to grow there due to our deer population. Maine Spring is quite damp, thus the abundance of Lichen.
Do you have American plum there as well? I’ve never been much good at telling the difference between the two. I’m pretty sure I have both American and Canadian here.
We do not have natively occuring Prunus Americana. But it has certainly been planted and could very well be naturalizing in some areas. The link in my first post does a really good job of explaining the difference between the two. The easiest being the sniff test, Americana is not as fragrant as Nigra according to the literature. There are several other things such as leaf and calyx attributes to look for as well.
ive seen and smelled them before. the few i found fruit on were pretty small and astringent. about a inch but if left on until a frost hits they’re pretty good. if you find one with bigger fruit, id be interested in some scions to graft on my black ice plum.
Good pics leaves look a lot like my Wild Goose but my trees are not yet old enough to fruit. Had 2 blossoms only this spring. I also have several Prunus Americana that naturalized here on my neighbor and my property. One has thorns but another with the identical blue fruit nearby has no thorns. One cluster about 30’ long has both that appear to be related. I have been trying to understand the role of the thorns since some are without thornes. Another cluster about 60’ long has no thornes but there is a large red plum and a green gage type variety. I lived here 20 years before they began to fruit.
Top pic from thorned trees neighbors property
Bottom two pics from my property.
They all are clear stone and are sweeter than my Stanley or Empress.
I would love to trade seeds and scions if you are interested. This year I planted several wild varieties, still waiting for germination, but 2ea did so far.
Take care
Dennis
Kent, Wa
I stopped on my way to work today and confirmed a second patch of prunus nigra, this patch has the pink blossoms, dark red calyx and also redder young leaves, most are starting to drop now (also seemed to be thornier?)
I stopped to check on the 2 plum patches recently. One patch had really heavy fruit set, but suffered from a severe case of what looks like plum pocket disrase and they were all rotting and turning black.
The second patch had a few dozen healthy looking plums though…I really hope pest pressure stays low in this patch so I can get a taste!
I went back to check on the Canada plums. I was able to find 3 fruit, was hoping for a few more, but the critters must have gotten there first.
One had some bug damage and was fairly ripe, had beautiful mildly sweet yellow flesh and tart skin, looks like first week of September is the time to harvest these in my area:
I plan to fall plant the seed. That has worked really well for me here with other prunus species.
My next update will most likely be returning in the winter for scion wood. I’m not sure what compatibility will be like, but I bet prunus Americana would be the safest bet.
Got there before the critters this year and picked about a dozen fruits. Good sweet flavor with some tart and tannin in the skin. The wild stands are not heavy producers but I have a feeling if they were grown in the open with proper pruning they’d do just fine. I successfully grafted a handful to Americana rootstock this spring, compatibility seems just fine so far and they have grown several feet this season. I have a few extras i’d gladly sell or trade if others are interested in trying them just shoot me a message. Been fun learning the habits of this tree.
I purchased a couple of small bare root Canada plum trees 3 years ago. Extremely slow growing, so if you intend use these to polllenize your hybrid plum trees you could be in for a bit of a wait.
i got 2 of the scions you gave me grafted to my black ice plum and Juliet sour cherry. they put on about 2ft of growth.
both these trees are fruiting so maybe will trigger these grafts to fruit as well? we’ll see next summer.
