plumeless

Plumeless is an adjective used to describe the absence of plums or a lack of plum fruit. The term is not common in everyday language but appears in horticultural and agricultural contexts to characterize orchards, trees, or harvests that do not bear plums. A plumeless condition can result from factors such as disease, pest pressure, environmental stress, improper pollination, or adverse weather that prevents fruit set or leads to fruit drop.

In practice, the label plumeless may be applied to reports, yield projections, or market assessments to indicate the absence of expected fruit from a given area or period. It can denote a temporary state in a single season or a longer-term condition in a particular cultivar or locality. While it can be used descriptively, the term is often substituted with phrasing like “without plums,” “non-bearing,” or “no fruit yield” depending on the context and audience.

Etymology and form: plumeless is formed in English by combining the noun plum with the suffix -less, a productive derivational pattern that yields adjectives meaning without or lacking. The construction is parallel to other -less forms such as fruitless or seedless.

See also: plum, plum tree, fruit-bearing, yield, non-bearing.