Damson Plum
DAMSON

An ancient variety of Prunus domestica thought to have developed from the wild sloe.  Antiquarians believed it to have originated in the vicinity of Damascus in the middle east, but the fruit was found widely in Europe in the historical era.  Damson has come to designate a broad range of purple plums, from small rich tasting early season varieties to large, late season sorts.  All varieties shared yellow green flesh that has a signature flavor combining intense sugar with astringency. Most are roundish with a slight point at one end.  Most have a purple blue skin with a lavender bloom.  They cannot be dried as a prune.  They invariablly contain a deeply furrowed stone at the heart of the fruit.  Transported from Europe to the various colonies of North and South America, the damson was the favorite plum of Anglo-America settlers, the green gage coming a decided second in preference. In traditional foodways the damson plum was cooked.  Plum jam, baked damsons, pickled, or preserved.  Because the stone is so adherent in the flesh, the plums were often initially processed whole, and the stones removed (if they were removed) after cooking.

During the nineteenth century, pomologists between an intensive efffort to develop damson strains with greater size than the original small original, greater sweetness, so that the fruit could be eaten out of hand, and later season maturation.  There was an old European strain called the white winter damson because of its late ripening that became an established American variety.  The Shropshire Damson was much larger than the standard small fruit that was the type commonly associated with 'damson.' 

The following nurseries carried one or another of the strains of damsons prior to the Great Depression:

Alabama Nursery, Birmingham AL; American Exotic Nursery, Seven Oaks FL; Atlanta Nursery, Atlanta GA; Bluegrass Nursery, Lexington KY; Booth Nursery, Baltimore MD; Cedar Cover Nursery, Salem NC; Colmant Nursery & Orchard, West End AL; Delaware Nursery, Milford DE; Dixie Garden, Chatanooga TN; Eastern Shore Nurseries, Denton MD; Emporia Nursery, Emporia VA; Excelsion Nursery, Rome GA; Forked Deer Nursery, Cove TN; Frederick Nursery, Frederick MD; Fruitlands, Augusta GA; Garvin Nursery, Wheeling WV; Geraty Nursery, Yonges Island SC; Greensboro Nursery, Greensboro NC: Griffith Turner Nursery, Baltimore MD; Guilford Nurseries, Vandalia NC;  Hales Southern Fruit, Fort Valley GA; Hopewell Nursery, Fredericksburg VA; Jessamine Nursery, Jessamine FL; Kentucky Nursery, Louisville KY; Munson Nursery, Falls Church VA; Old Dominion Nursery, Richmond VA; Peachland, Seaford DE; Richmond Commercial, Richmond VA; Royal Palm, Oneco FLl; Schwill Nursery, Memphis TN; Spring Hill Nursery, Prospect VA; Staunton Nursery, Staunton VA; Van Lindley Nursery, Pomona NC; Walker Nursery, Louisville.

Image:   U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Royal Steadman, 1925?

David S. Shields