greengage the English name for a group of especially good green or yellow plums whose origin and classification are uncertain but which are generally classed in or with the species Prunus domestica ssp insititia.
The original type is thought to have come from Armenia to Greece and thence to Italy, where it was called Verdocchia. The fruit reached France during the reign of François I (1494–1547) and is still known there as Reine Claude after his wife. It may have reached England direct from Italy (it was originally known in England by its Italian name), but certainly at an early date, since stones of the fruit were identified along with those of other plums recovered from the wreckage of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship, which sank in 1545 and was raised in 1982.
