Plums Prunus sp. is one of the two main kinds of plum; the European plum Prunus domestica, is generally oval, mellow and often intriguingly flavored fruit. It also includes the prune plums and the Japanese plumsP. salicina, the main fresh plums of commerce. There is a third type, P. institia, a native of Western Asia, which includes the small, acid, purple damsons and the small yellow mirabelle plums. Neither of these are of any commercial importance.

The plums our ancestors most likely encountered as some left Africa for Central and then South West Asia was a small plum called the cherry plum or bullace,  P. cerasifera, a reasonably edible fruit. Other wild plums in the region included P. spinosa, the sloe plum. This plum is pretty much inedible, being very astringent indeed. Our expansion into China found us amongst the wild P. salicina, the 'Japanese' plum (correctly, obviously, the 'Chinese' plum - it wasn't introduced to Japan until around 400 years ago).

The advances in fruit quality went hand in hand with the rise of agriculture, as it has (but not always) with most fruit. the 'Japanese' plum has probably had the longest human attention; the 'European' plum, P. domestica, is a natural hybrid between  the edible P. cerasifera  and the largely inedible P. spinosa, and it is suspected to have only occurred in the last 2,000 years or so, probably (but perhaps not only) in the Caucasus Mountain region of South West Asia.

From the South of South West Asia it is a short hop to Mediterranean Europe. Accordingly, Spanish missionaries introduced the European plum to west coast North America, and British colonizers took it to the east coast. Similarly, the European plum was taken to temperate and warm temperate climate colonies within the British Empire.

The 'Japanese' plum was much slower to reach the west, somewhat curiously - although it does need warmer climatic conditions than the European plum. As the name suggests, it wasn't until American and British contact with the previously closed society of Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that nurserymen in the west acquired plants of this 'novel' fruit.

The Japanese plums and their hybrids are somewhat susceptible to bacterial disease in humid climates, and this has limited their extensive culture to dry climate areas. Plums, along with peaches, are the archetypal 'summer fruit', and the firmer fleshed modern varieties have a good shelf life, store for a while, and handle quite well. Their season is all too short. Plums are good 'fruit of the season', and fresh or dried, a valuable contributor to the human animals diet.

Plums have useful levels of riboflavin (B2), with two (66 gram sized) plums providing about a sixteenth of an adults recommended minimum daily intake, and fairly good amounts of vitamin C.
Dried prune plums ('prunes') were ranked an outstanding first in tests to identify the most antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables. Studies have shown that fresh plums have the fourth highest chemical effectiveness in preventing oxidation in cells of any other commercial fruit. Most of this anti-oxidant activity is in the juicy portion.
Dried plums (prunes), like dried figs, contribute a useful amount of of calcium toward meeting the recommended daily requirement of 800 mgs.