In Georgia, it is usually eaten by hand and is used to make tkemali, a tart sauce for meat dishes. Although it is probably conspecific with Prunus cerasifera, the cherry plum (in Georgian: ტყემალი, romanized:t'q'emali), Georgians distinguish the two botanically and culinarily.[1] In the Caucasus, P. vachuschtii tends to be found from Caspian sea level up to 500–700m and P. cerasifera tends to be found at higher elevations, up to 1600–1800m.[citation needed]
Classification
N. N. Bregadze, who was apparently quite the splitter, described the species in 1976, and identified three forms; Prunus vachuschtii f. imeretinea, P. v. f. meczibuche, and P. v. f. vachuschtii.[2]