temporarily stored in the cold, at temperatures
below about 45ºF/8ºC. This is especially
common in supermarket fruits.
Plum and Plum Hybrids Most plums are the
fruits of two species of Prunus. A Eurasian
species, P. domestica, gave rise to the
European plums, which include French and
Italian prune plums, the greengage and Reine
Claude, the yellow-egg and imperatrice. The
most common of these are the prune types,
purplish-blue ovals with a meaty,
semimelting, semifreestone flesh. The second,
Asian species, P. salicina, originated in
China, was improved in Japan, and further
bred by Luther Burbank and others in the
United States after 1875. Varieties of the
Asian species (Santa Rosa, elephant heart, and
many others) tend to be larger, rounder, from
yellow to red to purple, clingstone, and often
melting. European plums are usually dried or
made into preserves, Asian plums eaten fresh.