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Trees 6–15 m tall. Branches reddish brown, unarmed or with a few spines, glabrous; branchlets pale red to grayish green, sparsely pubescent. Winter buds reddish brown, usually glabrous. Stipules linear, margin glandular, apex acuminate. Petiole 1–2 cm, densely pubescent; leaf blade dark green, elliptic to obovate, 4–10 × 2.5–5 cm, abaxially pubescent, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent on veins, base cuneate to occasionally broadly cuneate and with a pair of nectaries, margin remote crenate, apex acute to obtuse; secondary veins 5–7 on either side of midvein. Flowers solitary or to 3 in a fascicle, on apex of short branchlets, 1–1.5 cm in diam. Pedicel 1–1.2 cm, glabrous or pubescent. Hypanthium outside pubescent. Sepals ovate, outside pubescent, margin entire, apex acute. Petals white or occasionally greenish, obovate, base cuneate, apex rounded to obtuse. Drupe red, purple, green, or yellow, usually globose to oblong, rarely subglobose, 1–2.5 cm in diam., often glaucous; endocarp broadly ellipsoid, pitted. Fl. Mar, fr. Sep.
Much-branched shrub or small tree, usually with thorny branches; lvs oblanceolate to obovate, 4–7 cm, obtuse to broadly rounded above, narrowed to rounded at base, hairy beneath, sometimes eventually glabrous; fls only 1 or 2(3) in a cluster, 2 cm wide; fr dark blue to black, 2–3 cm, the stone subglobose, scarcely keeled, adherent to the flesh; 2n=48. A European cultigen, thought to be derived by hybridization of P. cerasifera with P. spinosa, occasionally escaped from cult. along roadsides and fence-rows in our range. Most of our plants are ssp. insititia (L.) C.K. Schneid., the bullace or Damson-plum, as described above. (P. insititia) Less often we have ssp. domestica, the common plum, more arborescent, generally unarmed, with larger fr 4–7 cm, and a compressed, keeled stone that often separates from the flesh.
A small deciduous tree. It grows 6-10 m high. The young twigs are hairy. The bark is grey-brown and becomes cracked with age. The leaves have stalks. They are alternate. The leaves are 2-7 cm long by 0.7-3.5 cm wide. They are oval and taper to the tip. They have fine teeth. The base is rounded. The flowers are white. The fruit are round. They are golden yellow, green, red or dark purple. They have a waxy bloom. Fruit can be 7.5 cm long. The stone is large and rough or pitted. There are many cultivated varieties.
