Davidson's Plum
Davidsonia pruriens
Wants warmth without glare: cover it below 5°C, and the leaves scorch in hard sun.
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Purple and violet
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Feeding
- All-purpose balanced
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- August
- Jan–Apr Growing
- Apr–Jul Spring Growth
- Jul–Aug Bud Break
- Aug–Sep Flowering
- Sep–Nov Fruit Set
- Nov–Dec Harvest
- Jan–Jan Harvest
- Plant spacing
- 13 ft 1 in
- In-row spacing
- 13 ft 1 in
- Between rows
- 13 ft 1 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, shallow and far-reaching
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 4 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 26–39 ft across, about 2–3× the width of the plant
Almost all of a tree’s roots are in the top two feet of soil, where the air is, and they run out well past the branch tips. The deep taproot most people picture belongs to the seedling; the tree grows out of it and spends the rest of its life spreading sideways instead.
The habit is Davidson's Plum’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Root & crown rot Root rot in waterlogged ground
- Frost damage Frost damage, so give it cover below 5°C
- Sun scald Leaf scorch where the sun falls on it unbroken
- Fruit fly wherever the climate runs warm
Ginger, Lemon Myrtle, Finger Lime, Tree Fern
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com