Fall field notes
Cold Hardy Plums and Cherry Hybrids: Fall Field Notes
Field note · September 2026
wild plums, a late hanging one that presents as mostly americana
wild plums, a late hanging one that presents as mostly americana but there's some hybridization in there. the fruit are slightly elongated like a canada plum, but they're ripe about 3 weeks later. the leaves have a mostly americana shape and margin, but not quite as narrow. prolifically suckering, and probably also some self seeding, this was more plum thicket with one hefty trunk in the center, a multi stem mother tree growing together 10-12" diameter, big for a plum. excellent fruit set, we collect two crates of them. so a seedling wild plum is about as specific as I can figure, atavism is a phenomenon where a hybrid with a wild species tends to revert to the wild phenotype. this could be half americana, half some mix of nigra and salicina. it's hard to know without lab work. That would actually be interesting, something to look into. wild plums make good pollinators, and a hardy vigorous rootstock.