Beach Plum

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

beach plum Prunus maritima, the best-known wild plum in America, is found along the eastern seaboard from New England to Virginia. The cherry-sized, crimson or purple fruits were among the first foods that the early colonists learnt to adopt. They make an excellent jelly; this is sometimes served with soft-shelled crabs, since the two products share the same season. They can also be used in many candies, desserts, and beverages, and to flavour meat and fish dishes.

An impressive conspectus of this fruit’s role in the kitchen is given by Elizabeth Post Mirel (1973). In what could serve as a model work on a minor fruit, she includes historical matter, observing that the first European sighting of a beach plum was by Giovanni da Verruzano in 1524, when he was exploring the coast of New York. But it was not until Humphrey Marshall (1785) wrote his scientific description of Prunus maritima that its botanical identity was established. Efforts have been made since then to cultivate the beach plum. Although cultivation remains rare, there are named cultivars in existence. This helps to preserve the identity of the beach plum, which is not always easy. The plant is highly variable in form, so much so that at one time botanists proposed two species, the high and the dwarf. Also, there are many other wild fruits which have similar characteristics; Mirel, citing Canada plums to the north, wild goose plums to the south, and Allegheny plums to the west, states helpfully that any of her recipes for beach plum can be used for ‘any wild plums you can find’.