Prunus cerasifera (Arizona)

CHERRY PLUM, MYROBALAN PLUM 

July 15, 2022

Our first stop in Arizona was the Petrified Forest National Park. 

200 million years ago, coniferous trees from the Triassic period were suddenly buried under a massive amount of mud. The sediment prevented access to oxygen, necessary for the fungi and bacteria that break down organic material, and the decaying process decelerated to a crawl. Instead, over thousands of years, minerals absorbed into the wood, crystallized in its cellular structure, and replaced the organic material. As a result, the petrified wood in the park and surrounding area is almost solid quartz.

The drive also contains a beautiful section of the Painted Desert where swaths of wide, pastel bands of pale blue, oyster white, lavender, and ruddy cinnabar traverse the mesas.

The Petrified Forest is the only park in the National Park System that contains a section of Historic Route 66 marked with the remains of a 1932 Studebaker.

Next we went to the majestic Grand Canyon National Park.

Here we spotted quite a bit of wildlife including rock squirrels, ravens, an elk with her calves, and a collared lizard.

Next, we traveled to mystical Sedona where I got my aura photographed and we cooled down in the waters of Oak Creek under a grove of sweet-smelling sycamore trees.

Later we would travel on to Phoenix to visit another beloved aunt but didn’t get an opportunity to do much sightseeing because our car required new brakes and one of our cats developed an abscess and needed an emergency vet visit. And it was a bone-melting 115^o F.

But back to foraging. . . In Sedona we did see some banana yucca (Yucca baccata), as well as quite a bit of prickly pear cactus (Opuntia spp.), but the fruit was not ripe yet on either. Finally, Joe spotted a tree at our campground that was dropping small, red-orange fruit with peach-colored flesh that turned out to be cherry plums.

Frankly, I was surprised to find stone fruit in the Sonoran desert, but with access to Oak Creek and the cooler temperatures of the higher elevation, apparently peach and apple orchards were some of Sedona’s first industries. 

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

It took me a bit of deciphering to figure out if we had found plums or cherries (also in the Prunus genus).

Both plums and cherries are drupes, a type of fruit where the outer fleshy part surrounds a single hard pit or stone that contains a seed. Additionally, both types of trees have an upright growth pattern and narrow, lanceolate leaves.

Confounding things, plum and cherry trees can have fruits, foliage, and flowers in a number of colors.

However, there are some distinctive differences between the two.

The cherry plum is an ornamental deciduous tree typically growing to 15-30’ tall with a shrubby, rounded habit, and sometimes thorny. Native to Southeastern Europe and Western Asia, there are green leaved and purple leaved varieties. Five petaled, white flowers bloom in early spring from which small edible fruits approximately 1” diameter develop.

RECIPE

Stovetop Cookie Stack with Honey Frozen Yogurt & Macerated Cherry Plum Sauce

Since our camper does not have an oven, I attempted Gemma Stafford’s Stovetop Cookies as the base for my cherry plum dessert. Because it is just the two of us, I reduced the ingredients by two-thirds. I also omitted the M&Ms, substituted white chocolate chips, and added slivered almonds and freshly-grated nutmeg.

The frozen yogurt is simply my favorite yogurt stuck in the camper freezer. Noosa is domestically produced in Colorado but with Australian yogurt cultures. It’s less tangy and more creamy than most varieties – and it reminds me of yogurt we had on our honeymoon in Australia.

The sauce is fresh, chopped cherry plums macerated in sugar.

I should have added more nutmeg for spice and I found the cookies a bit dry but may have over-cooked them. Nevertheless, with frozen yogurt and plum sauce, they turned out to be a fun, cold treat in the heat.

References

Michelle. (n.d.) 4 ways to differentiate plum trees vs cherry trees. Wander eat write. https://wandereatwrite.com/plum-trees-cherry-trees/

Missouri Botanical Garden. (n.d.). Prunus cerasifera. https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=286444

Moore, S. (n.d.). The difference between a plum tree and a cherry tree. SFGate. https://homeguides.sfgate.com/difference-between-plum-tree-cherry-tree-73000.html

Oregon State College of Agricultural Sciences – Department of Horticulture. (2022). Prunus cerasifera. Landscape plants. https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/node/2023

Spengler, T. (2020, December 15). Differences between cherry and plum tree. Gardening know how. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/fegen/differences-cherry-plum-tree.htm