Prunus americana
1. Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 225. 1877. 2. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 356. 1879. 3. Ibid. 159. 1880. 4. Ibid. 237. 1882. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 42. 1883. 6. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 366. 1883. 7. Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 63. 1890. 8. Cornell Sta. Bul. 38:37, 86. 1892. 9. Wis. Sta. Bul. 63:24, 35, 36, fig. 16. 1897. 10. Waugh Plum Cult. 147. 1901. 11. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 295. 1903. 12. Can. Exp. Farm Bul. 43:30. 1903. 13. S. Dak. Sta. Bul. 93:15. 1905.
Traer 3. Trayer 4.
De Soto probably holds first place among the Americana plums in the favor of fruit-growers. The qualities which commend it are: A tree rather better suited to the orchard than other varieties of Prunus americana having little of the waywardness of most sorts of its species and somewhat the manner of growth of the European plums. The trees, too, are enormously productive, so much so that in many cases their vitality is weakened by over-bearing unless thinned. The fruits of De Soto, while not as large nor as brilliantly colored as some of the Americanas, are not surpassed by any of the native plums in quality and keep and ship as well as any. The variety becomes, therefore, a market sort of value in some regions. The fruits are a little more subject to curculio than those of most of the native plums and the trees blight in the South somewhat and do not stand the drouths of the Mississippi Valley as well as some other varieties. Notwithstanding these defects, speaking generally, the De Soto may be recommended as one of the best of its species.
De Soto was found on the bank of the Mississippi River near De Soto, Wisconsin. The first settler to call attention to the plum was a Mr. Tupper who settled on the land where it was found in 1853 or 1854. The Trayer Brothers bought the place in 1855 and in clearing the farm they removed all the plum trees except a grove of what was at first called Trayer, afterwards De Soto. Later Stephen Heal came into possession of the property and in 1864 Elisha Hale, Lansing, Iowa, commenced to cultivate and disseminate the variety. De Soto was placed on the American Pomological Society fruit catalog list in 1883, dropped in 1891, and restored again in 1897.
Tree small, intermediate in vigor, spreading, open-topped, perfectly hardy, produces heavy crops annually, bears young; branches rough and shaggy, somewhat zigzag, thorny, dark ash-brown, with inconspicuous, small, raised, lenticels; branchlets numerous, long, green, changing to dull reddish-brown, pubescent at first, becoming glabrous late in the season, with conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds below medium in size, pointed, appressed.
Leaves falling early, folded upward, oval, one and three-quarters inches wide, four inches long; upper surface dark green changing to greenish-yellow, glossy, with scattering hairs and a narrow, grooved midrib; lower surface finely pubescent; apex taper-pointed, base somewhat abrupt, margin very coarsely and deeply doubly serrate, petiole five-eighths inch long, of medium thickness, pubescent, tinged red, glandless or with one or two globose, brownish glands on the stalk.
Blooming season medium to late and of average length; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in twos and threes; pedicels eleven-sixteenths inch in length, below medium in thickness, covered with short, thick pubescence, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes somewhat acute, eglandular, thickly pubescent on both surfaces, with a swollen ring at the base of the lobes, semi-reflexed; petals oblong or ovate, erose, tapering abruptly into long, narrow claws; anthers yellowish; filaments three-eighths inch in length; pistil glabrous, equal to or shorter than the stamens.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; one and one-half inches in diameter, roundish, varying to oval or ovate, compressed, often strongly truncate at the base; cavity shallow or medium, abrupt; suture very shallow or a line; apex roundish or somewhat pointed; color yellowish-red becoming a light or dark crimson over an orange-yellow ground, overspread with thin bloom; dots very numerous, small, light russet, inconspicuous; stem rather slender, three-quarters inch long, sparingly pubescent; skin thick, tough, very astringent, clinging to the pulp; flesh golden-yellow, very juicy, fibrous, tender and melting, of medium sweetness, mild; fair to good; stone nearly free, seven-eighths inch in size, oval, turgid, blunt-pointed, smooth; ventral suture bluntly acute and with slight furrows; dorsal suture acute, not furrowed.