By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on February 16, 2007
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.
