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Prunus insititia; photograph Isiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAIsiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Prunus insititia L.

Rosaceae · Austria, Germany +2 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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GBIF's records not checked. GBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked. So this page has no points on its map, no map marker, no habitat climate, no cultivation sheet and no species of nearest climate; the range is Kew's. Not a statement that none exist. How.

Prunus insititia, photograph 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrunus insititia, photograph Isiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrunus insititia, photograph Isiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrunus insititia, photograph AnemoneProjectors, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrunus insititia, photograph SABENCIA Guillermo César Ruiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrunus insititia, photograph en:User:ExplorerCDT, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›

Summary

The damson, damson plum, or damascene (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia, sometimes Prunus insititia), is an edible drupaceous fruit, a subspecies of the plum tree. Varieties of insititia are found across Europe, but the name damson is derived from and most commonly applied to forms that are native to Great Britain. Damsons are small, ovoid, plum-like fruit with a distinctive, somewhat astringent taste, and are widely used for culinary purposes, particularly in fruit preserves and jams.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Damson", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Prunus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Prunus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”.

Not checked: GBIF's records were not asked (why, under the name), and the habitat climate is read only from them, so no sheet is derived.
How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Group. Listed under the genus Prunus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Not checked. GBIF's records were not asked (why, under the name), and the habitat climate is read only from them, so none is derived here. This is not a statement that no climate exists.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Records not checked: GBIF's records were not asked, as said under the name.
NativeAustria, Germany, Switzerland, France · introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Corse, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Baltic States, South European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Assam, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Tasmania, Vermont, Argentina Northeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedGBIF's records not checked, as said under the name: so there are no points on the map, no map marker and no climate across the range; the range is Kew's. Not a statement that no record exists.

Photographs

Prunus insititia, photograph 1did not loadPrunus insititia, photograph 2did not loadPrunus insititia, photograph 3did not loadPrunus insititia, photograph 4did not loadPrunus insititia, photograph 5did not loadPrunus insititia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Isiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); AnemoneProjectors, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; SABENCIA Guillermo César Ruiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; en:User:ExplorerCDT, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate Not checked: GBIF's records were not asked (why, under the name), and the nearest habitat climates are read from the climate they give.

Other Prunus 125 in the reference

Prunus africana Prunus africana African cherry Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo Prunus alaica Rosaceae Prunus americana Prunus americana American plum Photo: CC BY, Tom NortonPrunus amygdalus Prunus amygdalus Almond Photo: CC BY-SA, Ken YoungPrunus andersonii Prunus andersonii Desert peach Photo: CC BY, Tom WainwrightPrunus angustifolia Prunus angustifolia Cherokee plum Photo: CC0, author not stated Prunus apetala Taiwan cherry Prunus armeniaca Prunus armeniaca Apricot Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Prunus avium Prunus avium Wild cherry Photo: CC0, author not statedPrunus bifrons Prunus bifrons Rosaceae Photo: CC0, Andreas Manz Prunus brachypetala Kurdish mountain cherry Prunus brachystachya Rosaceae all 126 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Prunus insititia subsp. juliana; Prunus insititia subsp. turonensis; Prunus insititia var. villosa; Prunus italica var. violacea; Prunus insititia subsp. dumetorum and 53 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

Under another author Prunus nigra Rchb. is an older name of this species, not Prunus nigra, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Germany, Switzerland +1
Records
not checked · GBIF's records were not asked: the page has no GBIF key

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Prunus insititia L. (plant_name_id 2960005), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
Habitat climate climate not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked, and the habitat climate is read only from them
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 210801-2, POWO 210801-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia's article Damson, the English article of this species' Wikidata item (Q10878191)
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence.

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