← Bedfellow

Oklahoma Plum

Prunus gracilis

Oklahoma plum, or sand plum, is a low thicket-forming plum of dry sandy and rocky prairies, white with bloom in earliest spring. Its small red plums are gathered for jelly and feed abundant wildlife. As with every plum and cherry, the flesh is the food: the pits, leaves and twigs are cyanogenic and are not.

Family

Rosaceae

Type

shrub

Lifespan

perennial

Height

3–8 ft

Spacing

4–10 ft apart

Light

sun, part shade

Soil moisture

dry

Soil pH

neutral, alkaline, acidic

Bloom

March, April, May

Bloom colors

white

Wildlife value

songbirds, butterflies, pollinators, larval host

Caterpillar hosts

~456 butterfly & moth species

Landscape uses

specimen, hedge or screen, foundation, erosion control

Native states

AR, CO, KS, LA, NM, OK, TX