Plums can be as small as an apricot or as large as a peach. When ripe, they are sweet and juicy, and some have tart skins that contrast nicely with their succulent flesh. Greengage plums, with green skin and flesh, are a popular dessert variety. Santa Rosa plums are red with light yellow flesh. Black Friar plums have dark purple skins with a silvery bloom and deep red to purple flesh. Damson plums, the best-known cooking plums, have purple skin with a silver-blue bloom. Prune plums, also called Italian plums, are small, with purple skin and green flesh that is relatively dry and separates cleanly from the pit; they are eaten fresh and dried as prunes, now sometimes called dried plums.
