Prunus domestica s.l. L., Wild Plum

Introduced, archaeophyte, occasional.

13 September 1974; Hackney, P.; Rossigh Bay, Lower Lough Erne.

May to October.

Wild Plum is a medium-sized deciduous tree, 6-10 m tall in good growing conditions, with a rounded crown and a trunk up to 30 cm in diameter. The 'wild' trees occasionally found in hedgerows, on watersides, roadsides and waste ground are usually smaller than this and sucker very readily from the base. Most or many of the records made of this taxon should probably be transferred to subsp. domestica (Wild Plum), but definitively separating this subspecies from subsp. insititia (cultivated Damson and the wild Bullace) can be difficult. For this reason, RHN and the current author (RSF) have concluded that plants identified in the Fermanagh field work as P. domestica should remain in this undifferentiated plum taxon.

P. domestica is an archaeophyte (ie an ancient introduction), a relict of cultivation, previously planted in orchards, gardens or in hedgerows around cottage farms. It often persists long after habitation has been abandoned. P. domestica is distinguished from subsp. insititia by the almost total absence of thorns or spines and by the hairs on the twigs being sparse, rather than densely pubescent (Webb et al. 1996; Stace 1997). For other comparisons see P. domestica subsp. insititia below.