// SPECIES PROFILE · SHRUB · NATIVE
American Plum
Prunus americana
American plum blooms in March with clouds of fragrant white blossoms before the leaves emerge, ripening to tart red-yellow fruits in July — beloved for jam and jelly, and a traditional fence-row fruit across the Great Plains long before pioneer settlement.
// QUICK FACTS
- Family
- Rosaceae
- Group
- shrub
- Native range
- Cent. & E. North America; widespread in OK
- USDA hardiness
- Zones 3–8
- Mature size
- 10–20 ft
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Adaptable; drought-hardy
- Wildlife value
- Earliest spring blooms feed solitary bees; tart fruit eaten by ~30 wildlife spp.
- Ecological role
- wild fruit · earliest pollinator nectar · thicket native
