Prunus spinosa Britain, and in Germany and other central European countries. Sloes can also be made into jam, chutney, and used in fruit pies. Sloes preserved in vinegar are similar in taste to Japanese "umeboshi". The juice of the fruits dyes linen a reddish colour that washes out to a durable pale blue. Blackthorn makes an excellent fire wood that burns slowly with a good heat and little smoke. The wood takes a fine polish and is used for tool handles and canes. Straight blackthorn stems have traditionally been made into walking sticks or clubs (known in Ireland as a shillelagh). In
Prunus simonii is particularly aromatic, much more so than "Prunus salicina", with a comparatively high level of hexyl acetate, which gives apples their aroma. Plant breeder Luther Burbank devoted a lot of work to hybridizing this species with the Japanese plum ("Prunus salicina") and developed a number of cultivars from the hybrid. Of these, the cultivar 'Climax' was particularly notable for its importance to the fruit shipping industry of California. Other influential plum cultivars that Burbank developed with "P. simonii" ancestry include 'Maynard', 'Chalco', 'Santa Rosa', and 'Formosa'. Those two species and the European species "Prunus cerasifera" have contributed the majority of