Nothing is known of the history of this plum other than that it has been long under cultivation and that, as its name suggests, it came from Hungary. As in the case of many of the varieties which came from Hungary there are several strains of this plum. The variety that is known in America as Hungarian was reported by Downing in 1876, as originating in Belgium, a mistake, as this is known to have been widely spread for a long time in Europe and European authorities trace it back to Hungary. The Ungarish of Budd, the Hungarian Prune of the Pacific Coast which is Pond Seedling, and the Date Plum, a yellow plum of Downing, all passing under the name “Hungarian,” are distinct varieties.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy, productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with few, small lenticels; branchlets thick, long, with internodes of average length, greenish-red changing to brownish-red, dull, sparsely pubescent, with few, small, inconspicuous lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, appressed.
Leaves drooping, folded upward, oval or obovate, one and five-eighths inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, thick; upper surface dark green, rough, hairy, with a deeply, narrowly grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex and base acute, margin serrate, eglandular or with small brown glands; petiole nine-sixteenths inch long, pubescent, tinged red, glandless or with one or two globose, greenish-yellow glands usually at the base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, seven-eighths inch across, the buds tinged yellow, changing to white on opening, not clustered but distributed on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels seven-eighths inch long, very slender, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes narrow, acuminate, thickly pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals narrowly ovate, serrate, converging at the base into narrow claws; anthers yellowish; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length, small, slender.
Fruit late, season short; one and five-eighths inches by one inch in size, distinctly oblong, somewhat necked, swollen on the suture side, compressed, halves unequal; cavity very shallow and narrow, abrupt; suture shallow; apex pointed; color dark reddish-purple, overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous; stem slender, one and one-eighth inches long, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, tough, slightly sour, separating readily; flesh yellowish-green, juicy, firm but tender, sweet, mild; good to very good; stone semi-free to free, one and one-eighth inches by one-half inch in size, irregular long-oval, flattened, necked at the base, acute at the apex, with thickly pitted surfaces; ventral suture wide, blunt; dorsal suture with a wide, deep groove.
ICKWORTH
ICKWORTH
Prunus domestica