Roja Dulce

Roja Dulce — also called Roja Criolla, Roja Chica or Dulce Chica — is the single most preferred, most planted and most traded of the nine ciruela mexicana morphotypes documented in the municipality of Juan R. Escudero in central Guerrero, Mexico. A 2024 ethnobotanical survey ranked grower and consumer preference across all nine and placed Roja Dulce first, ahead of Roja Grande, Morada and Amarilla, with sweetness, fruit size and pulp quantity being the three traits people named as decisive. It measured 14.9 degrees Brix, and in 2021 it shared the top price in local markets at 30 pesos alongside Roja Grande. Like every Mexican plum in the region it is propagated 100 percent from cuttings and never from seed, so the clone has been carried forward intact by generations of dooryard and small-orchard growers on essentially no purchased inputs.