In message , Jennifer Sparkes
writes

Sounds like bullace.


Bullace are purple and the trees have no thorns

Well my childhood memories of what we called Bullace was
like the picture on the above, ie greenish yellow flushed with
pink and better eaten after a slight frost. Can't remember about
the thorns but think there were a few.


In Sussex the local bullaces were yellow-flushed-red, and we bought a
green-flushed-red one from a nursery (its fruit weren't as tasty but it
cropped more reliably).
Ours were about as spiny as a damson, ie they'd scratch you but not stab
you.

I went out today and picked up some feral plums off a roadside:

Bush 1 had sloe-like small rugose leaves (but only weak spines) and
yellow fruit the size of sloes. They were still hard.
Bush 2 had larger flatter leaves and beautiful deep-yellow fruit with a
slight blush, the size of cherry plums. They'd almost all fallen.
Bush 3 had bright red fruit with a slight bloom, well into falling.
Bush 4 had plain light yellow fruit the size and shape of damsons, which
had fallen so thickly the ground was yellow with them.
Bush 5 had deep yellow fruit with a marked blush but rather angular with
a slight keel at the bottom end...

I ran out of time without finding two the same. I'll stew my samples
and see if they taste any different. I'm tempted to go back at sloe
time and try some of the yellow sloes in brandy, just as a curiosity.

--
Sue ]