Japanese plum (ume)

Prunus mume

fruit

A small sour fruit of an East Asian apricot tree, of the same section as the apricot; salted and dried, it becomes very tart umeboshi.

Origin

China, adopted in Japan

Season (United States)

all year round

Preparation

Never raw and green: the green fruit contains amygdalin; it is eaten salted, dried or in syrup, and the pit is left.

Did you know?

Its flower, meihua, opens in midwinter, the first to bloom despite the cold: in China it symbolises endurance, and is one of the “three friends of winter”.