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Purpleleaf plum

Prunus cerasifera 'Atropurpurea' (accepted: Prunus cerasifera) · Rosaceae · all Prunus records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 2 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: British Columbia; Catalonia, Spain; Global; Nevada / Great Basin; Ohio / Midwest; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 3 scopes across 3 cited fire sources

Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
- OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01
  Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
A Compilation of Good Plant Choices for Nevada's High Fire Hazard Areas (SP-05-16) · Official scoped edition
- NV; partial normalized coverage · 2005-01-01
  University of Nevada Cooperative Extension compiled plants suited to Nevada climate zones and reported favorably by at least two upstream firewise lists. FireApproved publishes 126 exact source owners at Nevada publication scope. The source explicitly makes no independent flammability determination, so these rows remain corroborative.
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
- VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15
  Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in CA, DC, DE, GA, ID, MA, MD, MI, MT, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, UT, WA, WV.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: Documented range 5–8.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: 1 ecological invasive report; set a location to distinguish exact from regional context.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Purpleleaf plum (Prunus cerasifera 'Atropurpurea') — Photo: (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
USDA hardiness: 5–8
Mature height: ~15 ft
Light: Full sun
Grows in: CA, DC, DE, GA, ID, MA, MD, MI +11
Rated in: British Columbia; Catalonia, Spain; Global; Nevada / Great Basin +3
Family: Rosaceae
Evidence: 13 cited sources

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector · record prunus-cerasifera-atropurpurea · 2016-wayback · as of 2026-08-26

Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Prunus cerasifera 'Atropurpurea' · exact match.

Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.

Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · record tree:Prunus cerasifera 'Atropurpurea' · New, January 2007 · as of 2026-08-26

5–8 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Prunus cerasifera 'Atropurpurea' · exact match.

Source location: Table 1, tree row.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 3 — 10–30 ft from the structure; thin vegetation, remove debris, and minimize plant massing [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (mid-scale rating)
Guía de pirojardinería: suitable inside or outside the 25-metre maximum-risk zone [girona-2020-iuf-25m-suitability] (with its recommendation)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector — USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area S&PF + state Firewise programs (WV, OH, PA, DE, DC, MD, NJ) · 2016-wayback · original source Primary evidence Keyed curation lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“MODERATELY Firewise (2)”

Red and purple leaf commonly used ornamental tree. Edible plum fruit.

Listed without a rating (7)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

7 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “time to flaming (s): 15” · score 15 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11658; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND. Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.
- “maximum energy flux (kW/m²): 142” · score 142 (FLAMITS — maximum energy flux (kW/m²))
  
  FLAMITS record 11695; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND. Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.
- “flaming duration (s): 68” · score 68 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11732; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND. Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.
- “mass loss rate (g/s): 0.12” · score 0.12 (FLAMITS — mass loss rate (g/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11769; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND. Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.
- “burnt biomass (%): 90” · score 90 (FLAMITS — burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 11806; Consumability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND. Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4062.76” · score 4062.76 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 11843; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND. Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.
- “energy flux (kW/m²): 115” · score 115 (FLAMITS — energy flux (kW/m²))
  
  FLAMITS record 11880; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND. Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

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Prunus cerasifera 'Atropurpurea' (Purpleleaf plum). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/prunus-cerasifera-atropurpurea/. Last verified 2026-08-23.