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Tree identification- damson?

New_to_gardeningNew_to_gardening Posts: 36
in Plants
Hello. We moved to our house 2 years ago and today for the first time I’ve seen some fruit growing on a tree. Would love to know what it is and I’m secretly hoping it’s a damson. Maybe pigeons got the fruit in previous years and I didn’t notice as wasn’t at home as much! Photos attached, thanks in advance. 

Posts

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 7,947
    Well, it's definitely a plum of some sort, but I don't know how to identify the fruit until it's swollen a bit more, and particularly, when it starts changing colour.  Maybe someone else can help...
    "The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life."  Rabindranath Tagore
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 784
    I spent ages trying to identify a damson tree and @Liriodendron is right, the best way is to wait and see how the fruit develops. It certainly looks like my damson at the moment but then so does our plum 🙂 A lot of the books, sites etc use the fruit as the definitive ID as damsons are effectively a type of plum anyway.

    Cant wait for this years damson jam!
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • New_to_gardeningNew_to_gardening Posts: 36
    Ok thanks I’ll keep a close eye on it and see. Maybe build a scarecrow to deter pigeons! Really want it to be damsons so I can make jam!
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 807
    I planted a cultivated fairleigh, and have some wild bullace/damsons close by, that are a small clonal wood!  The amount of blossom on them was unreal.  My poor specimen didn't do much this year, and I can count the fruit on it on two hands.  Your tree is a nice shape.
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 784
    @New_to_gardening the pigeons don’t seem to bother with our damson tree or our neighbours. They strip our cherry before the fruit even starts to ripen but don’t seem to have any interest in the damsons.
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • New_to_gardeningNew_to_gardening Posts: 36
    Butterfly66 said:
    @New_to_gardening the pigeons don’t seem to bother with our damson tree or our neighbours. They strip our cherry before the fruit even starts to ripen but don’t seem to have any interest in the damsons.
    Hi thanks for that. Interesting. I’m wondering why I hadn’t spotted the fruit in the last two summer - assumed they had been eaten by pigeons. Maybe in normal pre lockdown life I wasn’t spending enough time in the garden to notice!
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