CANADA PLUM; RED PLUM (Prunus nigra, Ait.). eo to 50 feet. Narrow-headed tree with stiff, erect branches, ending in zigzag twigs, with stiff, thorny side shoots. Bark pale, gray-brown, breaking and curling back into papery plates, exposing inner bark. Wood dark red-brown, heavy, hard, close-grained, with pale sapwood. Leaves obovate, or ob long-ovate, suddenly pointed at the tip, narrowing to base, finely serrate, 3 to 5 inches long, thick, firm, dull, dark green above, pale beneath, with prominent, pale midribs beneath.
Flowers white, in early spring, in few-flowered umbels, large, with distinct parts, the calyx red on outside, and petals fading to pink. Fruit in August, oblong, 1 inch or more in length, with thick, tough, orange-red skin, sour flesh, and an oval, flat pit, 1 inch long. Dist.: Rich, moist soil, Newfoundland to valleys of the St. Lawrence and Assiniboine rivers; south to southeastern Minnesota.