Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mexican Plum

Prunus mexicana

Also called bigtree plum, inch plum.

A single-trunked wild plum that does not sucker, with fragrant white bloom before the leaves and purple plums for eating fresh or for jelly.

Showy flowersEdibleWildlife valueDrought tolerantFall color

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–35 ft
USDA zones: 5–8
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, old fields and edges
Native range: 17 states, north and west to South Dakota and south to Louisiana
List all 17
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas
Also recorded in 3 other states, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Mexican plum is a wild plum of the central and southern states, from Indiana, Illinois and Iowa south to Alabama, Texas and northeastern Mexico. Unlike most native plums, it grows as a single-trunked tree and does not sucker into a thicket. That habit made it a common rootstock for grafting cultivated plums. Its bark turns a satiny blue-gray with darker horizontal streaks as it ages, and its fall leaves turn yellow, sometimes orange and red. Plant it as a flowering fruit tree for a yard or a woodland edge, where a suckering plum would be a nuisance.

Size, growth and what to expect

Mexican plum grows into a small tree of 10 to 35 feet, most often 15 to 25 feet, with a spreading crown about as wide. No source rates its speed, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, a foot and a half a year.

White flowers open in March and April, before the leaves. They are fragrant and up to an inch across. The plums ripen from August into October, about an inch across and purplish red to dark blue under a gray bloom. Birds and mammals eat them, and the leaves feed the caterpillars of the tiger swallowtail and the cecropia moth.

It grows in stream bottoms, open woods and woodland edges, and on fencerows and well-drained prairies in Texas. Records from states far from its true range, such as North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, are often hairy American plums filed under this name.

How to grow Mexican Plum

Mexican plum grows in full sun or part shade. It takes almost any well-drained soil, from sand to clay, including soil over limestone. Once rooted it rides out drought. The ripe plums drop and make a mess, so keep it away from patios, decks and walks. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and at least 15 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 20 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Clean the pits and keep them damp, since dried seed soon dies. Sow them in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth. For spring, keep them damp and warm for one to two months, then chill them in the refrigerator for two to three months.

Water weekly through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer browse it, and rabbits and voles gnaw the young bark, so guard each sapling with wire for its first two or three years. Prune in late winter, and only to remove dead, broken or crossing branches.

Plums need pollen from a second plum to set fruit, so plant two or more from different seed. It has no serious insect or disease problems. A clean crop of plums for the table may need spraying.

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

Sources (8)

Plan the planting