# American Plum (Prunus americana)

> A thicket-forming wild plum for dry banks and wet ground alike, with fragrant white spring bloom and tart red-yellow fruit for jelly and wildlife.

Also called wild plum, common plum. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-plum/

![American plum (Prunus americana) branch covered in white blossom in early spring](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-plum-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Andrew Ciscel, CC BY-SA 2.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prunus_americana.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 15 to 25 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, old fields and edges
- Native range: 41 states and the District of Columbia, north to North Dakota, south to Florida and west to Washington (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the District of Columbia). Also recorded in 2 other states, outside its native range
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry, Wet
- Growth rate: Fast
- Traits: Showy flowers, Edible, Wildlife value, Drought tolerant, Erosion control, Bears young
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship bare-root, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page to be told when it is priced, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Native Edible Orchard.

## Notes

American plum is the hardiest native plum, growing from the Canadian prairies to Georgia. Its suckering habit makes a fast, thorny hedgerow that shelters songbirds; the fruit ripens in August and makes superb jam. Its roots hold the soil, and its thorny thickets slow wind erosion in a drought. A shelterbelt tree for the prairie, a dry-bank thicket where lawn grass gives up, or a hedge along a wet ditch.

## Size, growth and what to expect

American plum is a fast grower by most accounts. It grows fast, and our growth estimator models it at nearly three feet a year in its youth on an average site. It runs from a thicket shrub to a small tree of 15 to 25 feet, tallest and most often single-stemmed in the South. Root sprouts come up as much as 10 feet from the parent and build the thorny thickets.

Fragrant white flowers an inch across open in April and May before the leaves. The red to yellow plums, three quarters of an inch to an inch and a quarter long with a single stone, ripen in August. A good crop comes about every other year. Wild turkeys, grouse, foxes, raccoons, deer and black bears eat them, and the thickets shelter songbirds. On the western Great Plains it is the wild plum of the shelterbelts, planted for drought resistance.

It grows wild from southern Saskatchewan and Quebec south to central Florida and west to Montana and Oklahoma, on prairie edges and along riverbanks.

## How to grow American Plum

American plum grows in full sun or part shade. It takes a stream bank or a low spot that stays wet in spring as readily as a dry bank. Because it suckers into a thicket, plant it where a spreading, thorny hedge is welcome: a fence line or windbreak, and keep it 15 feet from paths and buildings. Set trees 15 to 25 feet apart.

Plant dormant bare-root saplings from late fall through early spring. Dig a hole twice as wide as the roots and no deeper, set the root flare at grade, and backfill with plain soil. Mulch a ring three inches deep, kept off the trunk. Sow plum pits in fall, two inches deep, under hardware cloth against mice and squirrels. For a spring sowing, hold them damp in the refrigerator for three to five months first.

Give it a deep soak once a week through the first summer. Rabbits and voles love plum bark, and deer browse the shoots, so guard the trunk for three years. Prune in late winter to remove dead wood and crossing stems, and mow off unwanted suckers.

Wild plum needs a second seedling nearby for good fruit set, and the crop ripens in August. Watch for black knot, a lumpy black fungus on twigs; prune it out well below the swelling. Seedlings bear within three to five years.

## Sources

- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Prunus americana](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/pruame/all.html)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Prunus americana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/prunus-americana/)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: wild plum, Prunus americana](https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_pram.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Prunus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Prunus.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Prunus americana](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PRAM)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: American plum, Prunus americana](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=541)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Prunus americana](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.161452/Prunus_americana)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 9: Prunus americana](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242417055)
- [Go Botany (Native Plant Trust): Prunus americana, American plum](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/prunus/americana/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Prunus americana](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/prunus/prunus-americana/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: wild plum](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/wild-plum/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Prunus americana](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/PRAM)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Frost cracks and sunscald: why young bark splits in winter, and what a trunk wrap can and cannot do](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/frost-cracks-and-sunscald/index.html.md)
- [A year-by-year care calendar for a newly planted tree, from the day it arrives to its fifth spring](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/care-calendar-for-a-new-tree/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Plum, add ?species=american-plum with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=american-plum&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for American Plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-plum): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=american-plum
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Plum is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=american-plum
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Plum needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=american-plum:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant American Plum where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the tool runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/#species=american-plum
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far American Plum goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the tool runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/#species=american-plum
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Plum flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.