Canadian plum
Prunus nigra · Rosaceae
Canadian plum (Prunus nigra) is a perennial tree in the Rosaceae family. It is native to North America. USDA records it as hardy in zone 9 and warmer, down to about 24°F.
At a glance
| Type | tree USDA |
|---|---|
| Lifecycle | perennial USDA |
| Native status | native USDA |
| Mature height | 9 ft USDA |
| Light | full-sun USDA |
| Soil pH | 6.5–8.5 USDA |
| Bloom | April–May USDA |
| Flower color | Red USDA |
| Hardiness zones | 9 and warmer USDA |
| Guild layer | understory Derived |
USDA quoted from the USDA PLANTS database · Derived computed by a fixed rule from those columns. No value on this page is estimated.
Growing conditions
It needs full sun. It is recorded on soils from pH 6.5 to 8.5 — a broad range that spans acidic through mildly alkaline ground. Its cold limit is zone 9; USDA publishes no warm-end limit, so gardeners in warmer zones should check local heat tolerance separately.
Size and growth
At maturity it reaches about 9 ft, making it a mid-sized plant.
Bloom period
USDA records a bloom period of April through May. The flower color USDA records is red. Bloom timing is how the Guild Builder overlaps flowering across a planting so something is in flower for as much of the season as possible.
Bloom period is a claim about when this plant flowers. It is deliberately not a pollinator rating — no dataset we trust publishes one, so we do not make that claim. See Data & sources.
Role in a guild
Understory. In a layered planting this is the layer beneath the canopy, tall enough to hold structure but shaded from above. We derive the layer from the plant's growth habit and mature height using a fixed rule, so the same inputs always produce the same layer.
Tags
Related plants
Others in Prunus
- American plum Prunus americana
- Chickasaw plum Prunus angustifolia
- bitter cherry Prunus emarginata
- desert almond Prunus fasciculata
Similar role and hardiness
- deergrass Muhlenbergia rigens
- bitter panicgrass Panicum amarum
- shiny coneflower Rudbeckia nitida
- guineagrass Urochloa maxima
Where this data comes from
Every value on this page comes from the USDA PLANTS database record for symbol PRNI, or is computed from those values by a fixed rule. Nothing here is estimated or model-generated. Where USDA publishes no value, this page omits the claim rather than filling the gap.
bloom_end— quoted from USDA PLANTSbloom_start— quoted from USDA PLANTSduration— quoted from USDA PLANTSedible— quoted from USDA PLANTSflower_color— quoted from USDA PLANTSgrowth_habit— quoted from USDA PLANTSguild_role— derived by rule from USDA columnsmature_height_ft— quoted from USDA PLANTSnative_status— quoted from USDA PLANTSnitrogen_fixer— quoted from USDA PLANTSpet_safe— quoted from USDA PLANTSph_max— quoted from USDA PLANTSph_min— quoted from USDA PLANTSshade_tolerance— quoted from USDA PLANTStemperature_min_f— quoted from USDA PLANTSzone_min— quoted from USDA PLANTS
Read our full data sources and methodology.
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