biodiverseed:Mirabelle Plums* (P. domestica subsp. syriaca) in bloomThough not native to Denmark, th

biodiverseed:Mirabelle Plums* (P. domestica subsp. syriaca) in bloomThough not native to Denmark, these ubiquitously natralised wild plums from Asia Minor weave their way into every narrative about my biome. Presumably, they were brought here as cultivated plants: probably in the 18th and 19th Centuries, when Danes were enthusiastically imitating the French (who have a significant ethnobotanical relationship with the Mirabelle). The local birds are unknowingly very enthusiastic about sowing new trees, so there are three phenotypes of the fruit (orange-yellow, red, purplish-red) within a 10 km radius, with the orange-yellow one dominating. Above, you can see a wild Mirabelle tree in full blossoming glory at the perimeter of the wetland/park near where I live. This particular tree is thriving in a polyculture of mostly edible plants: there is a windbreak line of pines (I don’t know the species), on the Eastern side of which numerous volunteer mirabelles and apples have grown, and at least one walnut was likely planted by a squirrel; the shrub/vine layer predominately contains sea buckthorn, blackberries, red dogwoods, and roses. I haven’t managed to get in there and take a look at the soil layer (blackberries and buckthorn are vicious), but I know there is always a lot of purple deadnettle poking out of the borders.It’s an odd assemblage of plants, but they seem to be functioning well together. The plasticity of plant interactions in close quarters gives me hope in designing novel permacultural plant guilds.South of Copenhagen // zone 8 // coastal // 10/04/2015I photographed the same tree last year during blooming over on danmarks-natur*I still haven’t found out why Mirabelle Plums are illegal to import to the United States. I think it may have something to do with Plum Pox (Sharka), but other sources say it’s some sort of relic of a protectionist trade agreement. Does anyone know why this species is forbidden there?This is super-weird. This raging headache is hurting my google-fu, but so far all I can find is 1) everyone agrees it is illegal to import from Europe, but 2) Cornell has been breeding their own Mirabelles for some time.Additionally, here’s an impressive list of all the plants that Cornell has brought/is bringing to market. -- source link

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