Wild Plum

Description:

Rose Family (Rosaceae). Wild plum is a shrub or small tree 3-8 m (3- 24 ft) tall, and are usually forming thickets. The small branches are sometimes spiny. The leaves are alternate, egg-shaped to oval, 6-10 cm (2-4 in) long. The upper leaf surface is shiny green and the lower surface is slightly hairy; leaf margins are sharply toothed. The white roseaceous flowers are in-groups of 2-5 at the ends of branchlets. Flowers usually appear before the leaves in April and May. There are five separate, oval petals 8-12 mm (5/16-1/2 in) long. The reddish-purple plums are fleshy, oval, 2.0-2.7 cm (0.75-1.25 in) long; each fruit contains one seed. Wild plum flowers are insect pollinated.

Habitat:

Meadow along Lake Lewisville.

Notes:

Ethnobotanic: Wild plum fruit was and still is extensively consumed by the Indians of the prairies, either fresh or made into a sauce (Kindscher 1987). The Pawnee, Kiowa, Comanche, Omaha, Teton Dakota, Lakota, Comanche, Crow, Assiniboin, and Kiowa ate the wild plums or chickasaw plums (Prunus angustifolia) fresh or dried. Plums were also pitted and dried, although the Pawnee reportedly often dried them without removing the pits (Gilmore 1977). Early explorers and travelers of the Prairie Bioregion often mentioned wild plums in their journals and diaries and also appreciated them as food (Kindscher 1987). Today wild plums are eaten fresh, canned, preserved in jams and jellies, baked, and made into fruit roll-ups. The Omaha scraped and boiled the bark from the roots of the wild plum and applied it to abrasions (Gilmore 1977, Kindscher 1992). They bound together the twigs of the wild plum and made them into a broom. The Cheyenne mixed the crushed fruits of the wild plum with salt to treat mouth disease (Hart 1981). They also crushed and boiled the small rootlets and the bark of older wild plum with the roots of the scarlet thorn (Crataegus chrysocarpa) as a diarrhea remedy (Youngken 1925). The Mesquakies used the root bark of the wild plum to cure canker sores around the mouth (Smith 1928). The Teton Dakota used the sprouts or young growth of the wild plum as a wand in the “waunyampi” ceremony (Gilmore 1977). This is an offering or form of prayer, consisting of a wand made from a peeled and painted wild plum sprout. The “waunyampi” ceremony is usually offered with prayers for the sick. The various species of wild plum are astringent and sedative, and the bark is a tonic (Smythe 1901). The roots and bark contain a bitter substance as well as a substance called phloretin, which is an active agent against gram positive and negative bacteria (Lewis and Elvin-Lewis 1977).