Prunus, propably in the "padus" subgenus. p. serotina or p. virginiana maybe?

This post was edited by Huggorm on Fri, Mar 28, 14 at 18:03

Definitely not serotina. I'll look up the other one when I get home :-)

Edit: Not virginiana either

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Fri, Mar 28, 14 at 19:11

Prunus Americana , American Wild Plum

Prunus americana is discribed in Gray's Manual as:
Coarse shrub..... with dark, shaggy barked trunks.......branchlets often spinescent
Did you see spines?

I did not see any, Sam. I'll look again next week. The other characteristics matched. Do you doubt the ID or have another idea? The bark seemed very distinctive on all the plants I saw today and was a little different than the Google images I looked up FWIW

I am sure it is the plum. It will not be spiny in the manner of a hawthorn, with plums it is sharp ends to spur shoots here and there, varying from many to some or even few.

We have scattered individuals of P.mexicana throughout the woods here - haven't really paid much attention to the bark character, but if I saw an isolated small 'tree' type plum here, that's what I'd be counting on...

Thanks for all the input, guys! I will be sure to monitor the plants for further development and report back. I will probably nab a few fruits when they mature to grow for myself.

John

Yup, I'd agree with American plum, which is highly fragrant. They tend to grow in thickets and will perfume the surrounding area quite nicely. Lucky you!

Thanks, basic! I sure do like them! I'm contemplating replacing my viburnum dentatum row and replacing it with these.

Interesting to note that nearly all of the individuals I encountered in the woods were single stemmed. I did come across one in the open and it was more multi stemmed than the ones in shade. Weird. And OMG the smell is out of this world good...