Tuttlei

'Tuttlei', sold variously as 'Tuttle' and 'Nana Compacta Tuttlei', is one of the oldest and most widely distributed dwarf natal plums and appears in essentially every reference list of the species' landscape clones, from Fruits of Warm Climates through university plant databases. It makes a dense, low, spreading sub-shrub with leaves distinctly smaller than the wild type, which gives it a fine, tidy texture that holds its shape without much shearing. It is planted en masse as a groundcover, as a filler between larger shrubs, and in raised planters and rock gardens across Florida, California and Arizona. It keeps the species' spines, so it functions as a low barrier as well as an ornamental, and it flowers and fruits freely for a plant of its size, producing fleshy red berries over an unusually long window from winter through summer.