Chickasaw Plum

Description

Botanical Name:    Prunus angustifolia

Common Name:    Chickasaw Plum, Sandhill Plum

Description:    Chickasaw Plum is a Florida native shrub or tree. It puts on a beautiful spring display of fragrant white flowers that rival the dogwood blooms. The edible plums start out yellow and ripen to red in late summer. They are usually used to make jams. The pits can be poisonous if too many are eaten. Fast growing to 12-20 feet tall and wide. It does have a tendency to spread by suckers, which makes it an excellent plant for a living fence for a buffer or screening and for soil stabilization. Deciduous. Drought tolerant after becoming established.

Has a native habitat of dry hammocks, woodland edges, fencerows, and open woods. Likes to grow in dry to moist, loamy or sandy soil. Grows fine in sun, part sun, or part shade areas of your garden.

Birds, squirrels, and other critters eat the fruit. The flowers have special value to native bees. Nectar plant for butterflies and other insects. Is a host plant for various butterflies and moths:  Coral hairstreak, Eastern tiger swallowtail, Spring azure, Viceroy, Red-spotted purple, Promethea silkmoth, Imperial, Polyphemus, and Cecropia. Can be poisonous to cats, dogs, and horses.

“Chickasaw plum flowers are five-petaled and white with many obvious yellow anthers. Blooms are cupped in yellowish-green sepals. Leaves are 1–2 inches long and lanceolate with shiny green surfaces and finely toothed margins. They are alternately arranged. Fruits are cherry-like yellow drupes that turn reddish or purplish-pink when ripe, usually in late summer. Bark is rough and dark on the trunk, but more reddish on branches. Chickasaw plum has an interesting growth habit that results in an irregular shape and a “twiggy” look.”  ~Florida Wildflower Foundation~

Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water. Low/no tolerance of salty wind or direct salt spray.

This plant in 3-gallon containers is 2 – 4 feet tall.

This plant in 7-gallon containers is 4 – 6 feet tall.

Plant Lore:  The plums are a favorite food of Chickasaw Indians and other Native Americans who cultivated and spread the plant before Europeans arrived. Genus name from Latin means plum or cherry tree. Specific epithet means narrow-leaved.

Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 9