Ornamental Purple Plum Fruit: Some Are Edible

Are plums from an ornamental purple-leaf plum edible?

It Depends on Cultivar

• Many purpleleaf plums (Prunus cerasifera) are purely ornamental—fruit tiny, sour, astringent.
• Some cultivars produce palatable fruit: ‘Allred’, ‘Hollywood’, ‘Trailblazer’, ‘Spencer Hollywood’.
• ‘Pissardii’, ‘Thundercloud’: fruit sparse, poor quality.

Test It

• Ripe edible plums: sweet, larger, soft.
• Ornamental: very small, hard, sour/bitter.
• Taste one. If good, eat; if not, don’t.

Bottom Line

Some purpleleaf plums have edible fruit; most don’t. Taste test tells all.