Prunus spinosa of the fruit caused by the fungus "Taphrina pruni" produces an elongated and flattened gall, devoid of a stone. The shrub, with its savage thorns, is traditionally used in Britain and other parts of northern Europe to make a "cattle-proof" hedge. The fruit is similar to a small damson or plum, suitable for preserves, but rather and for eating, unless it is picked after the first few days of autumn frost. This effect can be reproduced by freezing harvested sloes. The juice is used in the manufacture of fake port wine, and used as an to impart roughness to genuine
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