Prunus mume in flower
Prunus mume is native to China, Korea, Japan, and the northern parts of Laos and Vietnam. It grows alongside streams, in sparse forests, and on rocky slopes from 1700 to 3100m in elevation. The species is commonly known as mei flower, mume, ume, Chinese plum, Japanese flowering plum, and Japanese apricot.
At 4.5 to 6m tall and the same distance across, this small tree has a rounded form and a fast-growing habit. The younger bark is a glossy bright green, but matures to be smooth and grey to cinnamon-coloured. The deep green leaves are ovate and serrulate, with downy hairs appearing on the leaf underside’s veins. In autumn, the leaves colour yellow.
Locally, the bright, clove-scented blossoms open from January to March, before the leaves appear. Depending on the cultivar, flowers may be single or double, with petals in shades ranging from white through rose to dark pink. The flowers are insect-pollinated and are hermaphroditic, with three cream to yellow stamens associated with each petal. These red-sepalled flowers may reach up to 2-2.5 cm across.
Prunus mume blossoms have special significance in China, where the five petals represent the blessings of wealth, health, love of virtue, longevity, and peaceful death. The blossoms are also the national flower of Taiwan. Historically, they have been depicted in art forms including embroidery, paintings and ceramics.
The fuzzy green to orange apricot-like 3cm-in-diameter fruits ripen over the summer. In Japan, they are either often pickled or salted and dried to make umeboshi or preserved by smoking. The sour juice left over from the salting process is sometimes used as a vinegar substitute. The fruits can also be made into wine and various sauces. Traditionally, the fruit is used to treat indigestion, roundworms, dysentery, bronchitis, chronic coughs, fungal skin infections, and to stop bleeding. Green dyes are made from both the leaves and the fruit, while the flowers are sometimes used to flavour tea.
Prunus mume is commonly cultivated for its fruit and flowers. The species is recommended for use as a specimen tree. It can also be grown as a bonsai. Japanese apricot grows best in full sun to partial shade in well-drained, acidic soils. While it is susceptible to bacterial canker, brown rot, verticillium wilt, and honey fungus, the tree is very likely to overcome these if it is grown in fertile soil. It can be grown from seed or propagated from softwood cuttings taken in early summer. Cultivars available in North America include ‘Nicholas’, ‘Kobai’, ‘Contorta’, and ‘Peggy Clarke’.
Note from Daniel: This is an entry written by a work-learn student, Madeline Iseminger, who was writing entries while the site wasn’t up. As a reminder, we’re now including authors of the entries and the photo thank-yous in the smaller text above the image(s). Also, you should now be able to click on the single images (in entries with single images) to get a larger version, if one exists.
Thanks for the beautiful photo and info.
I’m soooooo glad you’re up and running, again. I missed all the lovely pix and fascinating information.
🙂
Jess
Seeing this lovely photo and interesting write-up reminds me I must visit the Chinese plums in my neighbourhood!
If there is Prunus Mume in the UBC Garden, could cuttings be taken early this summer? They could then be grown on so that specimens could be for sale in the Shop in the Garden.
There should be some near the Amphitheatre, though I don’t know if that has changed with all the redevelopment at that site this past winter.
A gorgeous photograph!
That is gorgeous! It reminds us that Spring is on its way!
There is one getting ready to bloom at New York Botanical Gardens in Bronx, NY adjacent to the Conservatory along the Ladies Border. Dicey time for the bloom since there is always the chance of a freeze. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Why does the description say that there are only three stamens in each blossom? In this photo and on all the plum blossom I see every spring here in NYC, there are multiple stamens in each flower.
Probably an editing error on my part, as I was changing things around from what Madeline wrote. I’ve corrected it (it is about three stamens per petal, not blossom).
Yes, that’s what I figured, but you’re the expert, not me! I’m a brush painting teacher, and have painted a lot of plum blossom in my time. Plum blossom is one of what are known in China as the Four Noble Plants–bamboo, plum blossom, wild orchid, and chrysanthemum. It is said that if you master these four, you have learned all the basic strokes of East Asian brush painting.
Such joy to find your site up and running again on line, and the improvements to the site are excellent. Well done, Daniel. : >
I so look forward to every post, am constantly learning from it and thank you for all of your effort.
Thank you for the lovely photograph and very interesting description !
Thank you. So happy you ate back in business. I am in Connecticut. My older daughter got her MA and PhD at UBC. I lived visiting the gardens when we were out in Vancouver. My UBC Botanical Garden teeshirt is a bit worn, but still worn each summer… Have to get a new one.
As we are still buried in snow and our little orchard is inaccessible currently, this picture made us laugh out loud for the coming of spring.Thank you so much.
Ah, my favorite tree in my front courtyard, in full bloom right now. A glorious harbinger of spring in this gray difficult Portland Oregon winter.
The delicious scent of the tree in bloom is reason enough to grow an Ume “Plum.” I know of no other stone or pome fruit that sends its scent so far or that has a clove scent.
Pick some fruits, put them in a glass jar, and salt them heavily (well, pack them in the stuff), let them soften and exude juice and you’ll have a wonderful aromatic flavoring and, uh, saltening? for marinades and all kinds of meat and rice dishes. Be sure to use a glass-lidded bail jar, salt pickles corrode metal Mason jar lids!