Fruit In season

Damson plum

Prunus domestica insititia

Description

A small deciduous tree or dense large shrub, usually 4–6 m, bearing ovoid blue-black fruit 2–4 cm long under a heavy grey bloom. The flesh is greenish-yellow, tart and astringent raw, and the flattened stone clings to it. White five-petalled flowers open in spring. Long grown for jam, cheese, pies and steeped in gin, where the sharpness and depth of colour are the point.

Habitat

Old hedgerows, field boundaries, orchard edges and roadside scrub, often surviving as relics of former cultivation. Widely naturalised across Britain and Ireland on most soils, with concentrations in traditional damson districts such as the Lyth Valley and the Welsh Marches.

Hazards & care

The ripe flesh is edible raw but sharply astringent until fully ripe, and is better cooked. Stones contain amygdalin, so do not crack the kernels to eat or leave stones sitting in bottled fruit. Damsons often grow among blackthorn, whose spines are the main practical risk when reaching into a hedge; fruit from busy roadsides carries traffic grime.

How to identify

Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.

Fruit

Ovoid, 2–4 cm long and clearly longer than wide, blue-black beneath a grey bloom that rubs to a glossy skin. Size and shape alone separate it from sloes at arm's length.

Twigs and spines

Young twigs finely downy, becoming smooth; spines few or absent. A thicket of stiff, thorn-tipped lateral shoots means blackthorn rather than damson.

Flowers

White, five-petalled, 1.5–2 cm across, in small clusters opening in April with or just after the first leaves — blackthorn flowers on bare wood earlier in spring.

Flesh and stone

Greenish-yellow to amber flesh, tart and astringent raw, around a flattened stone that clings tightly. A stone that twists free cleanly points to a dessert plum or cherry plum.

Leaves

Oval to obovate, 4–8 cm, dull matt green, finely toothed, slightly hairy on the underside and held on a short stalk.

Commonly confused with

Blackthorn Harmless Blackthorn fruit (sloes) are near-spherical and rarely over 1.5 cm, on rigid thorn-tipped side shoots; damson fruit is clearly longer than wide, 2–4 cm, on an almost spineless tree.Cherry plum Harmless Cherry plum fruit is round, thin-skinned, usually red or yellow, and ripens from July with the stone parting freely; damson fruit is ovoid, blue-black with a dense bloom, and clings to a flattened stone.

Updated 2026-08-08T11:13:24.764Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Fruit