Tree intermediate in size and vigor, upright-spreading, productive; branchlets slender, pubescent; leaves oval, one and one-half inches wide, two and three-quarters inches long; margin serrate or almost crenate, eglandular or with small dark glands; petiole reddish, glandless or with from one to four globose glands; blooming season intermediate, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, creamy-white, usually in scattering clusters at the ends of lateral spurs; borne singly or in twos.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; about one and one-half inches in diameter, roundish or roundish-oval; cavity very shallow, small, often lipped; color golden-yellow, blushed and mottled with red on the exposed cheek, covered with thin bloom; flesh light golden-yellow, firm but tender, sweet, pleasant flavor; very good to best; stone dark colored, free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, irregular-oval, somewhat flattened, abruptly contracted at the base, with surfaces roughened; ventral suture prominent.
FREESTONE
FREESTONE
Prunus insititia
1. Am. Gard. 14:148. 1893. 2. Waugh Plum Cult. 129. 1901.
Freestone Damson 2.
Freestone is a Damson separated from other Damsons chiefly in being sweeter and more free of stone. It is so inferior to varieties of its species in several particulars as to have little value for commercial planting. The fruits are smaller and the pits larger in proportion to the amount of flesh than with several better known Damsons and the trees do not bear as large crops as plums of this species should; these faults of fruit and tree condemn the plum. To offset the defects in the tree, freedom from black-knot and immunity to leaf-blight may be mentioned as compensating somewhat. Still Freestone is hardly to be mentioned as worth planting in either home or commercial orchard. The origin of this Damson is unknown. Stark Brothers, Louisiana, Missouri, who introduced the variety about 1889, describe it as “a selected sort which is very hardy, free from insects, and productive.”