By Tom Schweich
One of the early-blooming shrubs along Golden’s trails is American plum — Prunus americana Marshall. This very common shrub is found almost everywhere in Golden, except … Alas! … on Schweich Hill. It is one of several shrubs in Golden that bloom before the leaves emerge and is therefore called a precocious shrub. It is also very fragrant, and you can sometimes smell them before you see them.
There are some in bloom now along the fence at the south end of New Loveland Mine Park. They will bloom soon on the slope of North Table Mountain, in large thickets shown above. The thickets will appear to turn white when the shrubs are in full bloom. You can walk through the thickets on the City of Golden’s North Table Mountain Trail, accessed by way of the Peery Parkway Trailhead.
American plum is very widely distributed across the United States from Massachusetts and Vermont to Washington and Oregon. In Colorado, it is common along the Front Range, particularly from metropolitan Denver north to Fort Collins.
American plum was described by Humphry Marshall in his 1785 book, Arbustrum Americanum or The American Grove, a book about American trees. Interesting to me is that Marshall dedicated his book to Benjamin Franklin, then the President of the American Philosophical Society. At the time, the late 18th century, all sciences were considered branches of natural philosophy.
Marshall was born in the village of Marshallton, southeast Pennsylvania, in 1722. He became a stonemason and the stone house he built is still in use. In addition to building a small observatory in one corner of this residence, Marshall also created a botanical garden, probably only the second botanical garden in the United States.
References
Marshall, Humphry. 1785. Arbustrum Americanum: The American grove, or, An alphabetical catalogue of forest trees and shrubs, natives of the American United States, arranged according to the Linnaean system: containing, the particular distinguishing characters of each genus, with plain, simple and familiar descriptions of the manner of growth, appearance, &c. of their several species and varieties. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank, in Market-Street, between Second and Third-Streets, 1785. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/136608
