BUNTE AMARELLE
Prunus cerasus
1. Truchsess-Heim Kirschensort. 652-655. 1819. 2. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 330. 1885. 3. Ia. Sta. Bul. 2:40. 1888. 4. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:272. 1903.
So far Bunte Amarelle has found a place only in the trying cherry climate of Iowa and neighboring States. It is not attractive enough in appearance, good enough in quality, or certain and fruitful enough in bearing to compete with other Amarelles, to which group this variety belongs. Its saving grace is extreme hardiness of tree, though vigor and health help make it somewhat desirable in cold, prairie regions of the Mid-West where cherry growing is more or less precarious. There has been much uncertainty as to the true variety and we have had to discard the trees on the Station grounds and compile a description.
This variety probably originated in Germany in the latter part of the Eighteenth Century. Truchsess, a German, in 1819, called the cherry Bunte Amarelle because of its variegated color before full maturity. The variety was introduced from Poland to America sometime previous to 1885 and has usually gone under the name of Amarelle Bunte. From all accounts Professor J. L. Budd of Ames, Iowa, the authority on these hardy cherries during his time, had two different cherries under the name Amarelle Bunte; for in his report at the Iowa Horticultural Society in 1885, he mentioned a variety under that name as being a large, dark purple and nearly sweet sort which could not have been the true Bunte Amarelle of Truchsess. Budd and Hansen in 1903 described a variety which agrees very closely with the true variety of Truchsess which we herewith describe.
Tree vigorous, upright, hardy; foliage large, coarse.
Fruit matures the second week in June; medium to large, roundish, flattened at the base; cavity variable in depth; suture shallow, indistinct; apex depressed; color yellow overspread with light red; stem green, straight, rather slender, one and one-half to two inches long; flesh slightly colored, juicy, firm but tender, pleasantly subacid; very good in quality; stone variable in size, broad.