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Native Plant Society of Texas

Clear Lake Chapter

Plant of the Month: Mexican Plum

Presented by Debbie Bush
June 8, 2020

Botanical name: Prunus mexicana
Common names: Mexican Plum, Bigtree Plum, Inch Plum
Family Rosaceae (Rose)

[MUSIC—EASY AND FUN]

[DEBBIE] Today I’m going to talk about the Mexican Plum, which, despite not having one, is one of my favorite trees. I just love it and I actually can’t wait to get one into my yard soon.

So, the Mexican Plum. Its scientific name is Prunus mexicana. The genus name, Prunus, is the ancient classical name for plum. The species name refers to the tree’s distribution in the southwest. It is sometimes called the Big Tree Plum because it is tree-like and it does not form suckers, and it doesn’t form thickets like other native plums.

The Mexican Plum is a perennial, and it belongs to the rose family. It grows to about 25 feet but can range anywhere from 15 to 35 feet. It has an irregular open crown, and the bark is gray to black. And what’s interesting about this is when it’s a younger tree it has these exfoliating plate-like scales, but as it grows older the bark it becomes deeply furrowed as it ages, which I think is pretty cool.

Okay, the flowers are fragrant, they are white, and they are about three-fourths to one inch in diameter. It is five petaled, and the flowers grow in a loose umbel of two to four flowers. So, the flowers bloom in February, March, and April, and they do so before the leaves appear, like the Red Bud. And the flowers, of course, are an important nectar source for our native bees and they attract pollinators such as butterflies and moths.

The leaves are alternate, simple, and they’re actually quite large for a plum. So they grow about two to three inches wide and up to four to five inches long, and it is deciduous.

The fruit is small with juicy flesh, and it is edible. It can be eaten raw, dried, made into jams and jellies, which is a popular way to prepare it. And, according to Foraging Texas, it can also be made into wine and brandy. The fruit, or droop as it’s called, changes color from yellow to purple as it ripens, and that happens July through September. I took this photo today and you can see that it is still green, so it hasn’t started changing color. For wildlife, birds and small mammals do eat the fruit.

So how can you use it? It is used as an ornamental in landscaping. It can be used as an accent tree or a shrub. It will take full sun to part shade. Water usage is low, which is nice. Soil conditions are dry to moist well-drained soils. It can grow in a variety of types of soils, so anywhere from sandy to sandy loam, clay loam, clay, and pretty much anything in between. It is a slow growing tree, and it can fit into tight spaces in your yard so it’s pretty good in that regard. It is also cold tolerant, it is drought resistant, and easy to grow.

The Mexican Plum ranges from Texas and Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma all the way north to Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and it’s starting to get into Illinois and Indiana. It is usually found growing along the edges of woods and in thin woods. It grows along river bottoms and well-drained prairies.

Here are some fun facts that I learned as I was researching this. The fruit usually has a white coating. And that white coating is a wild yeast, which can be used to make a sourdough starter, which I thought was pretty interesting. And Foraging Texas has a recipe for that so you can google that if you’re interested in making some sourdough. Another thing is, because of its drought resistance and cold tolerance, the Mexican Plum is used as stock for the grafting of cultivated varieties of plum. It is also a larval host for the Tiger Swallowtail and the Cecropia moths, which are the largest moths in North America, so that’s pretty cool. And then for propagation, it can be propagated from cuttings or seeds. Semi-hardwood and soft wood cuttings taken in the summertime root best. And the seed propagation is quite involved so I won’t go over that here, but you can find that information online. And that is what I have for the Mexican Plum.

[MUSIC—AND THAT’S IT]

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Plant of the month for August is Splitbeard Bluestem, Andropogon ternarius, and also called Feather Bluestem or Paintbrush Bluestem. It is a native. It's a warm season grass. It's a perennial. It's a bunchgrass. By warm season, it means that it's dormant in the winter and starts growing in the spring as the weather warms up. A bunchgrass tends to stay in a small circle or a bunch. The grass has numerous thin basal leaves, which usually stay about 12 or 15 inches tall, which makes it ideal in our home landscapes. It grows best in part shade to full sun. And this grass will be available at our plant sale on October 20 and 21. It prefers to grow in sand or well-drained soil, which we kind of struggle with here, but it does do well. It's shade tolerant and drought tolerant. I know the camera has a hard time focusing on those light hairy little seeds. The bloom time is from August to November. In late summer, it will send up its bloom stalk, which may be up to three feet tall. And, as the seeds on the long slender stalk mature, they'll split into two tiny stems about two inches long, each with seeds of fluffy white tufts. The seeds are wind distributed. The plants may be started from seed or another way is to dig your mature plant and with your shovels, cut it into maybe four sections, which then can be replanted in other places in your yard or shared with some of your neighbors. It's an easy plant to grow. Splitbeard can be found on the prairie with Little Bluestem and it's great when it's seen in the afternoon sun en masse; reminds me of snowflakes on the branches. And it can be used in a winter dried arrangement in the house. Native bees can use Splitbeard Bluestem for nesting materials. And until their bloom stalk is sent up, the narrow basal leaves are hard to distinguish from other bunchgrasses such as Sideoats Grama. And there it is. And you note how the seeds are all on one side, thus its name. We don't have any of this one for sale at our fall sale. Maybe we will in the spring, in April. But it was interesting, I thought, when I looked for Splitbeard Bluestem in the Wasowski book of Native Texas Plants these two bunchgrasses were on the same page. So, that is the story of the Sideoats Grama and the Splitbeard Bluestem.

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About the Region

New Braunfels, the location of our Fall 2024 Symposium, straddles both the Edwards Plateau Ecoregion and the Blackland Prairie ecoregion. Interstate 35 divides the city of New Braunfels; its path through the city closely parallels the boundary of these two ecoregions, with the Edwards Plateau on the west side and the Blackland Prairies region to the east. The Edwards Plateau area is also called the Hill Country; however, this general term covers a much larger area extending farther north. Spring-fed creeks are found throughout the region; deep limestone canyons, rivers, and lakes (reservoirs) are common. Ashe juniper is perhaps the most common woody species found throughout the region. Additional woody species include various species of oak, with live oak (Quercus fusiformis) being the most common. Sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) border waterways. This area is well known for its spring wildflower displays, though they may be viewed in spring, late summer, and fall, as well. According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, average annual rainfall in the Edwards Plateau ranges from 15 to 34 inches.

The Blackland Prairie extends from the Red River south to San Antonio, bordered on the west by the Edwards Plateau and the Cross Timbers, and on the east by the Post Oak Savannah. Annual rainfall averages 30 to 40 inches, with higher averages to the east. This region is dominated by prairie species. The most common grass species include little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) in the uplands and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) in the riparian areas and drainages. Common herbaceous flowering plants include salvias, penstemons, and silphiums. This area has suffered greatly from overgrazing and agricultural use. Few intact areas remain, though many of the plants can be found along county roadsides throughout the region.

Our four host chapters (New Braunfels, Lindheimer, Guadalupe, and the Hill Country chapters) are located in one or both of the ecoregions above. However, the eastern portion of Guadalupe County also falls within the Post Oak Savanna ecoregion. Annual rainfall averages 35 to 45 inches, with higher averages to the east. A wide variety of hardwood trees are found, including several species of oaks, elms, and in the Bastrop area, loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). Grasses and forbs dominate in the open savannas, with most common grass being little bluestem. Ranching, agriculture, and fire suppression have allowed woody species to encroach on the once-open savannas.

Source: Wildflowers of Texas by Michael Eason