A small deciduous tree; young shoots glabrous, brown. Leaves oblanceolate to obovate, narrowed at the apex to a longish point, tapered at the base, minutely toothed, the teeth glandular, 11⁄2 to 3 in. long, 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. wide, undersurface with tufts of down in the vein-axils. Flowers 1⁄2 in. wide, white, fragrant, produced in April before the leaves, usually in twos or threes and often crowded on short twigs to make a cluster 1 in. across; calyx and flower-stalk quite glabrous, the former funnel-shaped with narrowly triangular lobes, the latter slender, about 1⁄4 in. long; ovary glabrous.
Native of China; introduced by Wilson in 1900 when collecting for Messrs Veitch. Although it is a plum, its leaves are conduplicate in the bud state; that is, the two halves are folded together lengthwise like a sheet of notepaper, whereas in most plums they are convolute in bud, which means that each half of the leaf is rolled inwards. Judging by the trees at Kew, this plum is very similar to P. salicina with the same immense quantities of small white flowers which are quite pleasantly scented. P. salicina has always convolute leaves.