I'd like to know more about Bullace- what is it?

[alexheys]

This doesn't really add anything to the technical discussion about bullace but my next door neighbour hs two trees, one of which is clearly bullace based on these descriptions: greeny yellow round fruit that ripen to red and are a little too sour to eat uncooked. But he's also got another tree next to it that has red leaves and purple fruit which are very nice. The reason I mention it is because he calls them sugar plums which, while not strictly accurate, judging by anything else I could find on the internet, is certainly a more poetic name than the ungainly bullace. And, by the way, it's early August in Ipswich and both trees are absolutely laden with fruit after nothing last year.

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by alexheys

sugar plums which, while not strictly accurate, judging by anything else I could find on the internet, is certainly a more poetic name than the ungainly bullace.

I like Bullace as a name, it seems basic down to earth as a name. Sugar plums? Sounds a bit Burl Ives to me.

[trilbyhat]

Hi folks,
Although a new guy to this site, I've been using Bullaces and Sloes for winemaking gathered here in the W. Midlands over many years. Often I plant the stones (pits) and now have a few bushes in my own garden. Up till last Autumn I had never seen or heard of a "cherry plum" when I discovered a small grove of them fruiting heavilly near the River Tame. Your posts above told me what they were. I made excellent jam from them and a gallon of wine (yet to be tried).
Two puzzles arise:
1. One of my own seedlings which had not previously fruited also produced a few Cherry Plums. It can only have grown from a Bullace or Sloe stone.
2. This year the same tree has flowered profusely and some tiny fruitlets are already showing but among them are some which are very pale green and elongated rather in the form of a tiny Chile Pepper. I never spray so am wondering if this will be a mutation or a viral infection.

[Dorts]

My Mother-in-law (bless her) swore that Bullaces made by far the best 'Country Wine' and made gallons of it every year.
I remember it being quite strong but not ver flavoursome!

The Bullace is a 'Wild Plum', a term which covers a range of small trees and shrubs under the title Prunus domestica. These include Plums, Damsons, Greengages and Bullaces.

Two forms have been given the sub-specific names of institia and italica. But the whole group is so interbred that it is almost impossible to name individual shrubs.
Dorts.

[trilbyhat]

Thanks Dorts, I'll look up those sub-species. The tendency to interbreed will explain the arrival of my own Cherryplum. I have Plums,Damsons and Sloes close by so will be propagating the next stones with interest. The bush in question has taken about six years from sowing to fruiting and is more vigorous than the blackthorns which came from the same sowing. None of the seedlings have produced Bullaces as yet. My bullace wine seems to take longer to clear and the flavour is odd, but after a few glasses one hardly notices !

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by trilbyhat

Thanks Dorts, I'll look up those sub-species. The tendency to interbreed will explain the arrival of my own Cherryplum. I have Plums,Damsons and Sloes close by so will be propagating the next stones with interest. The bush in question has taken about six years from sowing to fruiting and is more vigorous than the blackthorns which came from the same sowing. None of the seedlings have produced Bullaces as yet. My bullace wine seems to take longer to clear and the flavour is odd, but after a few glasses one hardly notices !

Just to add even more 'confusion' to the 'Wild Plum' complex; Cherry Plum - Prunus cerasifera, and Sloe (Blackthorn), Prunus spinosa, should not be included with the Wild Plums, as they are considered to be distinct species and not part of that 'complex'.
Sorry.
Dorts.

[STYRBJORN]

OCED:-
bullace n a thorny shrub with small purple-black fruits, of which the damson is a cultivated form. [Prunus institia].
origin ME from OFr buloce 'sloe' of unknown origin.

Chambers also describes it as "closely related to the sloe".

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by STYRBJORN

OCED:-
bullace n a thorny shrub with small purple-black fruits, ............

My Mother-in-laws Bullaces, (mentioned earlier) were always green!
The old country folk always/not always, got it right!
Dorts.

[shakeyruth]

There is a lot of confusion here but I have lived in four different parts of England where bullace described a wild plum that was spherical and apricot coloured (Stanbury nr. Haworth W. Yorks, Castle Hedingham, Suffolk, Weald of Kent). In Castle Hedingham (actually, a small village called Gestingthorpe, the spherical dark form (like a sloe but as sweet as the golden form) was first described to me as a cherry plum by the locals.

On horticultural websites the apricot coloured variety is often referred to as Golden Sphere and as a mirabelle with origins possibly in Ukraine. I have recently bought such a tree in the hope of rewarding my youthful reminiscences of clambering in thorny trees during the back end of summer in three counties and slurping down this exquisitely sweet and flavoursome fruit. Alas, these cultivar fruit are considerably larger and plum like and have either responded to selection or are indeed a separate cultivar.

Now that I live in Lancashire a tree producing apricot coloured fruit in a hedgerow near Clitheroe, identical to my memories of this droop in W. Yorks, Suffolk, and Kent, is also known as a bullace by the locals.

The conventional wisdom here seems to be largely split between those who view the dark and apricot coloured spherical forms of this mirabelle both as bullace versus my personal experience of local folk who used the term bullace only for the apricot coloured version while in Kent and Suffolk the dark but equally sweet variety was referred to as a cherry plum. Surely, such markedly different coloured fruit would be rewarded with different names by those folks intimate with their no doubt welcome contribution to their cuisine.

I have never come across a white version whereas any green forms when ripe are surely quince or green gages?

[trilbyhat]

It may help to clear any doubt about the name "cherry plum" if I quote page 84 of "The Field Guide To The Trees And Shrubs Of Gt. Britain" (1981) which confirms Dorts identification as [i]prunus cerasifera[i].
Re. my April post: the Chille Pepper shaped fruits all turned pale yellow and fell in May. Disection revealed no visible wildlife inside. The few Cherry Plums which the birds have left me with are now the same size and shape as my regular cherrys although still green. The mystery as to how it grew from a sloe or bullace stone remains.