Species
+

Prunus maritima Marshall

Beach Plum, Beach plum, Graves' beach plum, Shore Plum

Climate known 52 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Prunus maritima, the beach plum, is a species of plum native to the East Coast of the United States. It is grown commercially for its fruit and resists certain pests.

Text from Wikipedia, “Prunus maritima”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Prunus

Prunus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs from the rose family (Rosaceae) that produce stone fruits, or drupes. As of March 2024, the genus has about 340 accepted species, including almonds, apricots, cherries, peaches, and plums. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the temperate regions of North America, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Eurasia and Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Prunus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Marshall
Native to
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts +8
Wild records
1406 in range· 327 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1209mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 112 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (March to April and June to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1209 mm a year, wettest March at 112 mm, driest February at 86 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cerasus cerasifera Eaton & Wright; Cerasus littoralis Eaton & Wright; Cerasus pubescens Ser.; Cerasus pygmaea Loisel.; Padus maritima (Marshall) Raf. and 28 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (March to April and June to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (937 mm of 1209 mm) takes 9 months, March to April and June to December. Mean temperature moves 22.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to June and September to October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1209 mm a year, wettest March at 112 mm, driest February at 86 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1209 mm a year at the habitat, 937 mm of it March to April and June to December. Wettest month March at 112 mm, driest February at 86 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1124 mm to 1308 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.9 °C, the absolute minimum -15.4 °C, about 56 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -5.8 °C to -0.3 °C), warmest day 25.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, without lapse correction; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 4 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -3 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1209 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 446 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost29.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–40RH 57–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 446 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / 2–54 / 3–67 / 5–1012 / 8–1617 / 12–2123 / 17–2626 / 21–2925 / 21–2822 / 19–2416 / 14–1811 / 10–136 / 5–8
Night °C-3 / -6–-0-2 / -5–01 / -1–36 / 4–811 / 9–1316 / 14–1920 / 18–2220 / 18–2217 / 15–1911 / 9–136 / 4–81 / -2–3
Rain mm89 / 84–9886 / 75–99112 / 105–127109 / 97–12197 / 87–106100 / 87–10899 / 76–118103 / 86–114101 / 91–108102 / 92–117105 / 88–123106 / 98–117
DLI13 / 12–1519 / 18–2026 / 25–2733 / 32–3538 / 36–3940 / 39–4240 / 38–4135 / 33–3728 / 27–2921 / 20–2214 / 13–1611 / 10–13
RH %57 / 56–5857 / 55–5857 / 55–6058 / 56–6160 / 57–6361 / 58–6561 / 58–6662 / 59–6761 / 59–6459 / 57–6058 / 57–5957 / 56–58

Each figure is the median across the 446 grid cells holding the 1338 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 990:2119 (40.475, -74.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 446 distinct grid cells holding the 1338 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 990:2119 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.50_-73.750, no lapse correction (no cell elevation on file).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeConnecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Delaware, Maryland, Virginia
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker41.766, -70.721 · in the densest population, 1341 records (95% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1406 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 327 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 16 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 68 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1406 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prunus maritimaPrunus maritimaPrunus maritimaPrunus maritimaPrunus maritimaPrunus maritimaPrunus maritimaPrunus maritima

Photographs: (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Erin Lalime, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Elizabeth Axley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Kira Novak, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Prunus maritima, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Effects of electromagnetic fields exposure on rapid micropropagation of beach plum (Prunus maritima)
Yan Dao-liang, Yuqi Guo, Zai Xue-ming, Wan Shu-wen (2009) · Ecological Engineering
Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on the rooting and growth of beach plum (Prunus maritima) cuttings
Xueming Zai, Pei Qin, Shuwen Wan, Fugeng Zhao (2007) · The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and phosphate-solubilizing fungus (PSF) on tolerance of beach plum ('Prunus maritima') under salt stress
Zai Xue-ming, Zhenping Hao, Zai Yu, Huanshi Zhang (2014) · Australian Journal of Crop Science
Cities and the Environment (CATE)
Bracha Y. Schindler, Alden B. Griffith, Kristina N. Jones (2011)
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) on Growth and Nutrient Uptake of Beach Plum (Prunus maritima) under Salt Stress
Xue Ming Zai, Zhen Ping Hao, Huan Wang, Yi Fan Ji (2014) · Applied Mechanics and Materials

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Prunus 29 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.