Prunus salicina * Elephant Heart Plum
I consider eating an Elephant Heart Plum to be one of the most profound joys of the Summer. This is not an eating experience for the fastidious. Elephant Heart Plums are large and juicy. The fruit of the Elephant Heart Plum is often lumpy and still tinged with green, even when dead ripe on the tree, but the center of the fruit is dark purple red and delicious. The seeds explode inside the fruit often enough that one should be careful giving whole fruit to small children. Our Elephant Heart Plums ripen in July and last for quite awhile on the tree, usually most of the month. The Elephant Heart Plum trees bloom with white flowers consistently in the third week through the end of March. By this part of the season we typically get enough warm weather for the bees to fly so we get significant production each year. Like the other Japanese Plums, Satsuma and Burgundy, the Elephant Heart Plum is a sweet variety. The Elephant Heart Plum is a low chill variety rated at 500 hours of chill. Chill hours include all hours under 40° F. Elephant Heart Plum Trees produce reasonably well in coastal gardens.
Fruit of Elephant Heart Plum ripe on the tree. High resolution photos are part of our garden image collection.
Other plants from the Genus Prunus featured on this site:
Prunus andersonii
Prunus campanulata
Prunus ilicifolia
Prunus ilicifolia lyonii
May Pride Peach