plums 101.

plum [pluhm]: the plum belongs to the "prunus" genus of plants and are relatives of the peach, nectarine and almond. they are considered "drupes", a term which describes fruits whose seeds are surrounded by hard stone pits. when dried, plums are known as prunes. the plum season extends from may through october, with the japanese varieties first to hit the market from may and peaking in august, followed by the european varieties in the fall. few fruits comes in such a panaroma of colors as the plum and its hybrid offspring.

apriums & pluots.
these are hybrid fruits which are genetic combinations of plums and apricots. we have fruit geneticist floyd zaiger, a uc davis graduate and a nebraska-born, iowa-raised biologist, to thank for these creations.

apriums: aprium were first produced by zaiger in the late 1980s and are a complex cross of plums and apricots, which require several generations of crossed to create the new fruit. genetically speaking, apriums are 1/4 plum and 3/4 apricot. they resemble apricots on the outside and have a sweet taste, more intensely apricot than plum. they are grown on planted trees (largely in santa clara county, san jose, california - hence their abundance at my market in berkeley, california) and are smaller than most apricots.

pluots: pluots were first produced by zaiger in the late 20th century and are a complex cross of plums and apricots, genetically speaking, pluots are 2/3 plum and 1/3 apricot. they resemble plums on the outside and have an intense, sweet taste, due to a high sugar content, and fleshy pulp. like apriums, pluots are also grown in california. there are many varieties of pluots including: crimson sweet, dapple dandy, dinosaur egg, early dapple, emerald drop, flavor delight, flavor fall, falvor finale, flavor grenade, flavor heart, flavor jewel, flavor king, flavor prince, flavor queen, flavor rich, flavor royal, flavor supreme, flavorosa, geo pride, raspberry jewel, red ray, spash, sweet treat, and tropical plumana. (i'm pretty certain i have actually seen all of this list at berkeley bowl over the last 2 weeks)