A deciduous tree 20 to 30 ft high, sometimes a shrub. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, 4 to 6 in. long, one-quarter as much wide, hairy below along the midrib and in the axils of the veins; margins set with glandular teeth. Flowers white, 3⁄4 to 1 in. across, produced on the year-old wood in April and May in stalkless clusters of two to six; calyx-lobes glandular, toothed. Fruits roundish, 3⁄4 to 1 in. in diameter, with a thick red or yellow skin.
Native of the southern and central United States; founded as a species in 1892, but known long before. It has been regarded as a hybrid between P. americana and P. angustifolia, but is now accepted as a good species. Many varieties of it are cultivated for fruits in the United States, which are especially well adapted for the Mississippi Valley and the southern States. They are known collectively as the Wayland or Hortulana plums. The Miner group probably also derives from P. hortulana. None of these varieties is of any economic value in Britain.
P. munsoniana Wight & Hedrick – Allied to the above and first described as a separate species in 1911. Leaves narrower than in P. hortulana, being mostly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, and finely saw-toothed, the teeth tipped with reddish glands. Native of the southern USA, west of the Appalachians. Parent of the Wild Goose group of orchard plums.