Mexican Plum is a North American native tree, perfectly suited for our area. It is a small, deciduous tree with a whole lot of positive features that make it an excellent choice for our gardens.
Mexican Plum is a small tree. It grows 15-25 foot tall, and 15-20 foot wide. making it a perfect choice for small yards, patio homes, city gardens, under power lines, etc. It is attractive enough on its own, and its appeal as a flowering tree makes it a perfect choice for use as a focal point in a small garden or bed.
Mexican Plum can take full sun but is usually found in the wild as an under story tree. It can tolerate filtered light and seems to do best if given afternoon shade.
Once established it is very drought tolerant, making it an excellent choice for xeriscape landscapes, or for those who don't water as often as they say they do ( and you know who you are).
Mexican Plum flowers like crazy in spring forming thousand of small white fragrant flowers with a unique perfume-like smell. The flowers are followed by tiny small fruit that ripens in fall. The fruit of Mexican Plum is edible and makes good preserves ( but you have to pick a ton of them). This tree is excellent for nature lovers as it provides both food and shelter for many bird species.
Its bark is very interesting and makes this tree just as interesting when it is bare of leaves. The bark of Mexican Plum is silvery gray when young, turning to a scaly dark rough surface as it matures. The leaves of Mexican Plum provide some Fall color as well, turning a yellow/orange in fall.
Because of it's irregular branching structure and it's bark, Mexican Plum is a good candidate for use as bonsai material. I have one that I cut back and have been letting branch out for a few years. In just a short time it has worked itself into a nice little tree. It has formed a new apex on it's own without any wiring, and is branching out quite well. With additional branching, and some training I expect it to be one of my favorite trees before too long.
