BAUMANN MAY
Prunus avium
- 1. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 168 fig. 60. 1845. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 74. 1862. 3. Hogg Fruit Man. 279. 1884.
- Frühe Maiherzkirsche. 4. Kraft Pom. Aust. 1:1, Tab. 1. 1792. 5. Truchsess-Heim Kirschensort. 140, 141, 142. 1819. 6. Ill. Handb. 49 fig., 50. 1860. 7. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 348, 349. 1889.
- Süsse Maiherzkirsche. 8. Christ Handb. 662. 1797.
- May Bigarreau. 9. Kenrick Am. Orch. 234. 1841. 10. Mag. Hort. 7:288. 1841. 11. Cultivator N. S. 4:280 fig. 1. 1847. 12. Hovey Fr. Am. 1:55, 56, Pl. 1851.
- Guigne Précoce de Mai. 13. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:54 fig. 2, 55, 56. 1866. 14. Mas Pom. Gen. 11:51, 52, fig. 26. 1882.
- Bigarreau Baumann. 15. Leroy Dict. Pom. 5:176 fig., 177. 1877.
- Guigne de Mai. 16. Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom. 102 fig., 103. 1904.
Baumann May is an early Sweet Cherry which at one time held high place among its kind but a century of culture proved that it had little value except for extreme earliness and it is now but sparingly or not at all grown either in America or abroad. If the variety could be obtained it might be worth growing for breeding work because of its earliness and great productiveness. At one time this variety was rather largely grown in central and western New York and specimens of it must yet remain in this region.
From the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, when we first find an account of this variety in Kraft's Pomona Austriaca, to the last of the Nineteenth, writers have described Baumann May under many different names. From all accounts it originated toward the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, in Germany. From Germany it was introduced into Alsace where F. J. Baumann, a nurseryman at Bollweiler, grew it in his nursery under the name Bigarreau Baumann and disseminated it throughout the French provinces. The cherry was received in America, with several others, by Colonel M. P. Wilder of Boston, Massachusetts, from Messrs. Baumann, about the year 1838. The American Pomological Society listed the variety, in 1862, in its fruit catalog as Bauman's May but dropped it again in 1871. The following description is a compilation:
Tree vigorous, somewhat spreading, regular in form, compact, very productive; branches stocky, nearly horizontal but often curved downward; branchlets with short internodes, reddish-brown nearly covered with silver-gray scarf-skin; leaves medium to large, dark green, ovate-oblong, coarsely and deeply serrate; petiole rather short, with two large, reniform glands near the base of the leaf; buds large, ovate; flowers of medium size, opening very early.
Fruit matures very early; medium to rather small, ovate-cordate, angular, irregular in outline; color dark red becoming nearly black when fully ripe; stem one and three-quarters inches long, rather thick; flesh purplish-red, with abundant juice, soft and tender, sweet, well flavored; of good quality; stone medium in size, roundish-ovate.