Like others in the genus, Wild Plum features lovely, showy, white spring flowers in an airy canopy and loved by pollinators.  The flowers occasionally are tinged pink and fragrant. Several butterfly and moth species favor it as a larval host, and it also attracts Monarch butterflies as well as native bees.
 
     Wild Plum can be trained to grow as a single-trunk tree, although it grows naturally as a multi-stemmed shrub, often forming thorny thickets.  It makes a great screen, and birds and small mammals use it for shelter and nesting. 
 
     Its fruits, red or yellow flushed with red, can be eaten off the stem or baked and made into jams.  
 
     Also called American Plum, this shrub also is great for erosion control because its roots hold the soil.  For winter interest, the bark exfoliates as the tree ages.
 
     Fun fact: ☺ Some Native American tribes scraped and boiled the bark from the roots of the wild plum and applied it to cuts. 
 
     Fruit photo: Matt Lavin