Blireana Plum               PROO-nus bli-ree-A-na

• Broadleaf deciduous tree, 20 by 20 ft (6 x 6 m), rounded, dense branching, trunk often has large bumps.  Leaves alternate, simple, at first purple but fade to green, 3-6 cm long, ovate, apex acuminate, base rounded.  Blooms in very early spring before leaves appear, flowers solitary, pink, double, 3 cm across, somewhat fragrant.  Fruit purplish red, but rarely formed.
• Sun.  A short lived tree-- my guess is that in Corvallis, a healthy looking tree at 35 years-old would be rare.  Very attractive in flower, but Jacobson (1996, p. 487) states the following --- "Habit chaotic, congested, and twiggy.  The trunk develops unsightly warts and burls.  It is as if the cream-of-the-crop genetics went into flowers, leaving only the dregs for the rest of the tree."
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5      A hybrid of P. cerasifera ‘Atropurpurea’ and a double form of P. mume.  Developed in France, introduced in 1906.
• blireana: of Blere, France.  blireana is the spelling used by the Royal Hort. Soc.(Huxely, 1992) and Krüssmann (1976).  The specific epithet is also spelled blireiana, e.g., Jacobson (1996), Sunset Western Garden Book (Brenzel, 2001).
• Oregon State Univ. campus: southeast corner of Vet. Research Lab., which is south of Dryden Hall.