CLEVELAND
Prunus avium
- 1. Horticulturist 2:60 fig. 1847-48. 2. Elliott Fr. Book 191 fig., 192. 1854. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 74. 1862. 4. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:131. 1866.
- Knorpelkirsche von Cleveland. 5. Ill. Handb. 45 fig., 46. 1867.
Cleveland is a Bigarreau which falls so far short of its near kin, as it grows in New York at least, as not to be worth planting except as an early cherry of its type—earliness being its one saving asset. The cherries closely resemble Rockport in size, color, shape and flavor, are in no way better than that somewhat mediocre sort and are even more subject to brown-rot. It ripens with Black Tartarian and can never compete in orchard or market with that sort. Possibly Cleveland has too much merit to be wholly neglected yet it certainly is not worth planting in New York unless in a locality where it does exceptionally well and when an early cherry of its kind is wanted.
Cleveland is said by its introducer, Professor J. P. Kirtland, to be a seedling from Yellow Spanish. Its close similarity to Rockport suggests that it may have come from a pit of that variety. It was brought out in 1842 but was not adopted by the American Pomological Society for its fruit list until 1862. Despite rapidly passing popularity it is still on this list.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, open, very productive; trunk of medium diameter and smoothness; branches smooth, reddish-brown partly overspread with ash-gray, with many small lenticels; branchlets slender, brown partly overspread with ash-gray, smooth, with numerous small, inconspicuous lenticels.
Leaves numerous, five inches long, two and one-half inches wide, folded upward, obovate to long-elliptical, thin; upper surface medium green, slightly rugose; lower surface light green, lightly pubescent; apex acute, base abrupt; margin coarsely and doubly serrate, glandular; petiole often two inches long, reddish, rather slender, hairy, grooved, glandless or with from one to four reniform, reddish glands, usually on the stalk.
Buds small, short, pointed, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds or in clusters of variable size on rather short spurs; leaf-scars prominent; flowers white, one and one-fourth inches across; borne in scattered clusters, usually in twos; pedicels three-fourths inch long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, tinged with red, light green within, broadly campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes tinged with red, broad, acute, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals roundish, entire, with short, broad claws, notched and crinkled at the apex; filaments in four series, the longest averaging one-half inch in length; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit matures early; about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, cordate, compressed, cavity wide, flaring, irregular; suture shallow, indistinct; apex somewhat obtusely-pointed; color light red overspreading yellow; dots numerous, small, yellowish, obscure; stem slender, one and one-half inches long, adherent to the fruit; skin thin, tender, separating readily from the pulp; flesh light yellow, with colorless juice, tender and melting, sweet; of good quality; stone clinging, large, one-half inch long, oval, flattened at the base, plump, with smooth surfaces.