The one on the right is a plum tree, one of the fruitless ones you can get at home depot or lowes. The one on the far left also looks like one too. They do grow fruit ( even though they are clasified as fruitless), but usually the fruit is normal sized but with large seeds. You can eat them.

I thought so! But wasn't sure. It must be Prunus cerasifera. Pretty, but it's poisonous and lives only 20 years. Thanks.

The one on the right definitely looks like a purple-leaf plum (Prunus x cerasifera or a hybrid therof). But the one on the left just could be something else, maybe a purple-leafed Japanes maple.

And the plums (fruits) on the purple-leaf plum tree cultivars are not poisonous.

Joe

Do you have much experience with these (the purple-leaf plum trees) in Southern California? How do they do with the dry climate?

We live in Temecula, inland so.Calif. We don't own one, but our neighbors have one just on the other side of the fence. It has always looked great. The blooming period (March, IIRC) is extremely brief. It's deciduous, so the branches are bare in winter.

Hi ccroulet --

Does your neighbor water the tree a lot? He/she probably has a sprinkler system for it?

Bare branches in the winter are fine for me -- I want it to shade our small house in the summer but not in the winter.

I barely water my sour purple plum tree at all in Northern California, 80-85° without any rain. In fact, I don't give it any water in the summer PERIOD. Of course, I am going to remove it next year so I don't have a lot invested in its survival. These things sucker like crazy.

Purple leaf plums do pretty well in So. Cal. as far as climate goes. The killer is that they are a good host for glassy wing sharp shooters, the most effective vector of the fastidious vascular bacteria, Xylella fastidiosa. That's the causal agent of "scorch" diseases on a broad range (and getting broader every year) of ornamental plants. Those trees just happen to be susceptible to that disease as well. It's knocking out a lot of purple leaf plums right now. Planting one doesn't guarantee failure, but it's Russian roulette. Once infected, there's no cure.

I have two in the Canyon Country area. They do great, fast growers. Mine ony get the water from the lawn and have leaves from about march to november/december. I just had one of the plums off it today and wow was it sweet. The juice is dark red and will stain you if your not carefull ;).

Here is one that's about 8 years old in the backround. I have another in the front which is about 4 years old and is alot larger than when I planted it.

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I had a non-fruiting purple-leafed plum that got the 'bug' that was, and still is, I believe, going around. I had to have it removed. I replaced it with a 'forest pansy' redbud which seems to be carefree and quite lovely, IMO. It blooms well in the spring, even just two miles from the beach where I am, and it has lovely bronze fall foliage.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:546280}}

My neighbors had that plum tree and it was messy and most of the year deciduous so I'm glad they removed it. I know when it is in bloom with those dark leaves it is gorgeous.

Wobsie: Yes, our neighbors water a lot. I don't know how much the plum gets, though. They originally came from Huntington Beach, and they've tried mightily to create coastal-style landscaping here in Temecula.

They're oh-so-beautiful but short lived around here.

Other dark foliaged trees: Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy', better color with afternoon shade, 'Emperor I' Japanese Maple (ditto), Agonis flexuosa 'After Dark', Cotinus Coggygria 'Royal Purple'.

Here are some pic of my purple leaf plum tree.
Here are some dried up plums:
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Tree is very tall and wide.