Prunus simonii is a small deciduous tree growing to about 6 meters (20 ft) in height.^[2] The flowers produce almost no pollen; the fruit varies in quality, can be bitter or pleasant to eat, and is flat in shape.^[2][9] Just like an apricot, the fruit flesh clings tightly to the pit. The taste is often bitter. Fruit production is not particularly bountiful. The fruit is dark red^[5] or "brick red".^[10] The branches are slender and the leaves oblong.^[11] In appearance, the fruit is flatter than most plums, looking "tomato-like".^[3] The fruit is particularly aromatic, much more so than Prunus salicina, with a comparatively high level of hexyl acetate, which gives apples their aroma.^[12][13]

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.^[14] Of these, the cultivar 'Climax' was particularly notable for its importance to the fruit shipping industry of California.^[9] Other influential plum cultivars that Burbank developed with P. simonii ancestry include 'Maynard', 'Chalco', 'Santa Rosa', and 'Formosa'.^[15] Those two species and the European species Prunus cerasifera have contributed the majority of the genetic constitution of modern Japanese-type plum cultivars, with lesser contributions from three native American species P. americana, P. angustifolia, and P. munsoniana.^[16]

• "Prunus simonii". Plants for a Future.
• "Prunus simonii". National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).