Last week Darrell and Mary Kromm from Reeseville Ridge Nursery stopped by on their way up North to drop off a native plum tree, often called the American plum (Prunus americana). I had contacted Darrell earlier in the year to find out if he could tell me why my native plum trees don’t produce fruit. They did the first couple of years after we planted them, but have since failed to produce even though they have cloned themselves to take over a fairly large area at the southern boundary of my prairie.
Darrell told me that typically plum trees require a co-pollinator. Plums typically do not set fruit without having received pollen by another of the same species. This pollen transfer, of course, is done by the bees, moths and other pollinators so there must have been other plum trees in the area many years ago.
According to Doug Tallamy‘s research, the genera Prunus supports 456 native caterpillars, moths and butterflies, so we really want to keep these trees around. I’m just looking for a little jam as my reward.
So, I’ve planted my new plum tree. It maybe a couple of years before it produces fruit, but perhaps the cross-pollinating will occur sooner than that. Stay tuned….
Another good reference source for details on plum trees.
Hello, Donna,
The lady who presented on native pollinators at the Minnesota conference suggested another aspect to the pollination issue.
Native pollinators need food for their entire pollination season, not just for the plums, etc that we value.
Case in point. Carol and I have a blue berry plantation that produces quarts and quarts of fruit.
For us, this happened by coincidence. Turns out, the native pollinators that love blue berries dine on other plants throughout their season, things like Dutchman’s breeches, willows, and red twig dog wood.
As dumb luck would have it, we had those natives all growing within a few yards of the blue berrries. Hence , the native pollinators stick around, making the blue berries just one of their stops, albeit one that is great for us.
Hi! Jim — sounds like you’re providing the prefect habitat for our native pollinators. I assume you’re speaking of Heather Holm’s presentation. I included some of her thoughts in my earlier posts Trees and Shrubs for Early Nesters and Trees and Shrubs for early Pollinators. I think you might enjoy reading them as well.