Botanically related to peaches, nectarines, cherries and
almonds, plums are drupes, or stone fruits, that contain a hard
pit at the center of their soft, juicy flesh. With more than 200
cultivated varieties, plums come in a wide array of sizes,
shapes and colors. It takes upward of 4 pounds of ripe fresh
plums to yield a pound of dried plums, or prunes. Only the
sweetest, firmest plums are suitable for prune production, with
most prunes coming from European varieties. Fresh plums are a
good source of several vitamins. A cup of sliced plums supplies
26 percent, 13 percent and 11 percent of the recommended daily
intake for vitamins C, K and A, respectively, according to U.S.
Department of Agriculture data. Vitamin C is essential to the
formation, growth, maintenance and repair of all bodily tissues,
including skin, blood vessels, bones and teeth. Plums contain
appreciable amounts of thiamine and riboflavin and small amounts
of several other nutrients, including calcium, iron and
potassium. Although most of the