Download Mexican plum, a NICE! bloomer in early spring

Mexican plum, a NICE! bloomer in early spring
Bill Ward Boerne Chapter, Native Plant Society of Texas
About this time of year, I
always get a little impatient waiting
for signs that the Mexican plum
trees are about to burst into white
bloom and bring us the happy news
that winter finally is coming to an
end.
This harbinger of spring is the
March plant of the month for
Operation NICE! (Natives Instead
of Common Exotics!). Mexican
plum (Prunus mexicana) “is the
star of our native plums,” writes
Sally Wasowski. “In full sun or
understory, Mexican plum makes a
beautiful wide-spreading tree.”
(Sally and Andy Wasowski, “Texas
Native Plants: Landscaping Region
by Region”)
Mexican plum is a small tree or
large shrub, usually not getting
more than about 20-25 feet tall. It
is a very-early-spring bloomer, the
small white flowers appearing
before or with the first new leaves.
When the tree is covered with
flowers, the scent is strong and
sweet. Seems to me that all the
bees in the County seem to agree
that those little white flowers really
smell good. The full bloom comes
with a full buzz.
As the blooms fade, they
become pale pink. Later one-inch
fruit appears on the tree, and it
turns from green to dark purplish
red as it ripens in late summer.
These little plums are considered to
be edible, especially by certain
small mammals and birds, and even
by some people.
The 2- to 4-inch-long leaves are
dark yellow-green above and
lighter beneath, with prominent
netted veins. Bark of younger tree
is ringed with bands of light-gray
and black. As the tree matures, the
bark becomes scaly and rough and
mottled in shades of dark-gray and
brown. Bits of peeling bark give it
a birch look.
Mexican plum grows from the
East Texas piney woods through
eastern Central Texas and the Cross
Timbers to the Edwards Plateau.
That covers a whole spectrum of
soil types and moisture regimes.
No wonder this tree grows in a
variety of landscape conditions. In
nature, Mexican plum is mostly an
understory plant, but it can survive
full sun. During the hot part of
summer days in this area, the
leaves droop. However, the tree
generally is drought tolerant and
will survive, no matter how droopy
it may look during hot weather.
The Boerne Chapter of the
Native Plant Society of Texas
provides free planting and care
instructions for Mexican plum at
nurseries participating in Operation
NICE! (Hill Country African
Violets and Nursery, Barkley’s
Nursery Center, and Maldonado
Landscape and Nursery).
In the wild, Mexican plum
usually is found as scattered
individual trees, not in thickets like
its smaller cousin the creek plum
(Prunus rivularis). For this reason,
Mexican plum is considered to be a
more well-behaved landscape plant
than some of the other native
plums. Even though the small
Mexican plum in our yard has sent
up two suckers, I must assume we
won’t expect a real thicket of
Mexican plum to develop in our
backyard. At least that’s what the
books say.
Two or three years ago, it was
discovered at the Cibolo Nature
Center that the Mexican plum is
host to larvae of the cecropia moth,
Texas’ largest moth.
At the
moment, a few large cecropia
cocoons can be seen attached to the
still-leafless branches of Mexican
plums planted near the Visitor
Center.
It shouldn’t be much longer
before the Mexican plums in this
area are flowering. The bees and I
are looking forward to it.