Japanese Apricot

Prunus mume is a deciduous tree of the rose family, 4 to 10 metres tall, native to southern China around the Yangtze and introduced to Korea, Vietnam and Japan. Despite being called a plum, it belongs to the apricot section of Prunus. It flowers in mid-winter, with fragrant white, pink or red blossoms 2 to 2.5 centimetres across, the first to bloom despite the cold, so that mei flowers symbolise endurance and are one of the Three Friends of Winter. The yellow drupe ripens in June and July, in the rainy season called meiyu, plum rain. In East Asian cooking the fruit is used in juices and sauces, to flavour alcohol, and pickled or dried; Japanese umeboshi are salted pickled plums. Smoked plums, wumei, make the Chinese drink suanmeitang. The fruit is also used in traditional Chinese medicine.