[Sca-cooks] RE: Plums and Irish

[Johnna Holloway]

Dug out my copy Mabey's Flora Britannica. Mabey notes that "It is 
possible that
the tree known as the bullace (P. domestica ssp. insititia) with large
sloe -like fruits is native in woodlands in Britain. But its fruits are 
barely
distinguishable from naturalised, dark fruited damsons."
He notes that some are relect or bird sown and some trees found today are
crosses between the blackthorn and various sweeter flavored Asian plums that
were introduced more recently.

Johnnae


> Plants & People in Ancient Scotland by Dickson & Dickson (2000)
> notes that in digs around Ednburgh Castle in 1984-91,
> "A fragment of Plum or Bullace type stone was also found". This was
> dated to 100 to 300 AD.
> I read this as being these were Prunus insititia or bullace plums.
>
> Johnnae
>
>