Audubon® Native Chickasaw Plum

The key to attracting lots of birds to your garden is not simply having food for them to eat, but also providing places for them to live, roost, and escape from predators. Chickasaw Plum gives backyard birds prime nesting habitat with its dense, twiggy, somewhat thorny stems. It makes a space where birds such as Brown Thrashers, mockingbirds, field sparrows, vireos, and Painted Buntings can feel secure. Meals are provided, too, in the form of small, sweet-tart fruit and caterpillars. Many species of moths and butterflies use Plum Trees as host plants, and their offspring make top-notch bird food.

Chickasaw Plum is similar to the Wild, or American, Plum, but with a more southerly distribution. This species is found from Delaware to Florida and west to Arkansas and Texas. The Chickasaw people once made the fruit a part of their diet; hence, the name. The little half-inch plums are usually quite tart until they are completely ripe. Today the tree primarily serves wildlife. Besides feeding birds and caterpillars, Chickasaw Plum also serves pollinators. The frosty white flowers open early—in March in much of its range—and they offer nourishment to bees when not many other plants are blooming.

If they can escape the birds, some of the caterpillars that feed on Chickasaw Plum become gorgeous adults. These include the Promethea, Io, Imperial, Polyphemus, and Cecropia moth, and the Tiger Swallowtail and Red-Spotted purple butterfly. The funny Hummingbird moth, which looks and acts like a miniature hummingbird, also uses Plum as a host plant.