i hope this works for the pic

Here is a link that might be useful:

Could they be wild plums? I remember having access to them when I was a kid and they looked a lot like this, but I don't remember what the leaves looked like. Anyone?

Marcia

They sure look like some sort plum to me as well - what do the seeds look like?

Here is a pic of the inside which looks plum like, it has a large seed that is red and orange-ish in color. I have just never seen such a small plum before...does anyone know if they are edible. Thanks for all of your help.

Here is a link that might be useful:

the leaves are def from prunus family... it's a plum of some sort. is it a smallish tree, rough bark? white/pink flowers in early spring?

the tree is about 8 feet tall or so..the bark is smooth. The tree is at the end of our property so my husband only just discovered it the other day when he noticed the berries or plums (whatever they are :O) So I don't know what kind of flowers, but you can bet I will be watching for it next year!

As a child, one of my favorite things to do was pick a bucket of wild plums to carry with me all day long. I don't know what kind we had, but they looked pretty much like these. I know there is a plum called Chickasaw plum that grows in central Florida. Don't know if it is native, but it seems to be quite common. You might google that.

Good luck!

Marcia

I may be way off but I think it may be a Redbay tree. Rub the leaves and see if you get the smell of bay. It is a member of the Laurel family and is being threatened in Ga, North Florida and the Carolinas by the Ambrosia Beetle. You may notice some leaves that have a funny curl part to them. If so this is a Gall of somesort but it won't hurt the tree.

If it isn't Redbay then it still may be a part of the Bay family. We planted a Redbay as a host to Spicebush/Palamdes Butterfly. But afterwards discovered that they prefer the Camphor trees that come up as volunteers in our yard. (I know they are invasive but we keep one or two trimmed back so that they have new growth to lay eggs on.)

If you do have a Redbay or other member of that family, there is a group in Ga that collect the seeds in the fall to plant to get seedlings to replace the ones destroyed by the beetle. I ended up sending some seeds to a guy in Houston and he grew some to plant in the last native plant park inside the loop around Houston. They are a native plant there but they are very hard to find as seedlings.

Hope this helps. Let me know if I am right.

Thank you guys...Marcia, I did google the chickasaw plum and the leaves and stems look identical to it, but the plums are yellow and red, whereas these are dark in color, i wonder if they are going to turn a different color later..this is driving me crazy!! LOL

mboston, I did try rubbing the leaves together and it is nothing like bay. I'm sorry, when I saw your post I was kinda hoping that it was a Redbay. Thank you for trying.

I googled it, too, flahoney, and saw that the fruit was a different color. But I also saw that there are 3 other plums it could be, including hog plums, and something else that I've already totally forgotten. I'd be just as curious, and I would probably take a branch in to a local nursery that features fruit trees, etc, and see if someone can tell you for sure. I think wild plums would be really cool. They are small, but tasty, and it still looks like some sort of plum to me, even if it isn't a native one.

Marcia

Thank you Marcia, that's a great idea. I have been trying to figure these out and it just seems like everything i have looked at online just doesn't match completely. I think I will try taking a sample to the nursery.

Thanks again,
Honey

It's not a Hog Plum. Here's a Hog Plum:

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The plums kinda sprout right from a branch. This one from across the street is fruiting:

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Wish I could help, Honey. I thought I had seen this on the island and took a pic of what I thought it was, but it clearly wasn't.

Please let us know what you find out!

Welcome from Susie

Thanks for the pic of the seed - kinda hard to tell w/ the flesh still on, but as ill-mannered ache sez, it REALLY looks like something in the prunus family. The leaves, fruit & even the way the branches are formed lead me to believe this.

Did you taste 1 yet? Wild plums can be sour or sweet - & there are many variations, since they usually start from animal/bird-dropped seeds....

We have the same kind of berries.Did you find out WHAT they are?

I know this is a very old post, but I never saw an answer. Considering your location and the size of the tree, this looks like it might be a cherry laurel (aka Carolina laurelcherry) Prunus caroliniana, to me. Native, but can be very invasive in your area due to the large number of fast growing, resilient seedlings that often sprout up around the parent tree.

How big are they? We used to pick berries that looked just like that. We called them gooseberries, but they were not. If you eat the berries before they ripen, they're really tart.

I think they probably were wild blueberries.