1. Gard. Chron. 1:734. 1841. 2. Ibid. 2:176. 1842. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 302. 1845. 4. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 345. 1849. 5. Elliott Fr. Book. 420. 1854. 6. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 517. 1859. 7. Mas Le Verger 6:57, Pl. 29. 1866-73. 8. Barry Fr. Garden 413. 1883. 9. Hogg Fruit Man. 706. 1884. 10. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 435. 1889. 11. Wickson Cal. Fruits 358. 1891. 12. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:187. 1897. 13. Waugh Plum Cult. 110. 1901.
Ickworth Imperatrice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Ickworth Imperatrice 13. Imperatrice Ickworth 10. Imperatrice Jckworth 7. Jckworth Imperatrice 7. Knight’s No. 6. 3, 5, 9, 10.
Ickworth is hardly known in America though in England it is a favorite late plum noted as being one of the best of all plums for late keeping. In New York the plums of this variety are too small for the market and are not high enough in quality for a home plum; moreover, the plums do not always ripen in this latitude. In California Ickworth has been found to make a very good prune and to ship very well in the green state but here again small size debars it from great commercial value. The habits of growth of Ickworth are very good and so markedly so that when considered with the late keeping qualities of the fruit, one wishes that this variety might be bred with a larger plum of better quality with the hope of an offspring from the union of especial value as a late plum.
Knight, the noted English pomologist, raised this plum from the Imperatrice fertilized by Golden Drop and named it after Ickworth Park, near Bury St. Edmunds. Knight aimed in raising this and other plums to produce a fruit containing sufficient sugar to keep well and not shrivel. In Ickworth he succeeded to a high degree.
Tree large, rather vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, productive; branches dark ash-gray, roughened by the numerous, large, raised lenticels; branchlets of medium thickness and length, with internodes of average length, green changing to brownish-drab, dull, lightly pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels, leaf-buds small, short, conical, appressed.
Leaves folded upward, obovate or oval, one and three-eighths inches wide, three inches long, thick, leathery; upper surface dark green, shining, pubescent only along the grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, sparingly pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin crenate, with small dark glands; petiole one-half inch long, thick, greenish, pubescent along one side, glandless or with from one to four large, reniform or globose, yellowish-brown glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom intermediate, long; flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch across, white; borne in thin clusters on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels seven-sixteenths inch long, below medium in thickness, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, lightly pubescent, with few glands and marginal hairs, erect; petals roundish or roundish-oval, finely crenate, tapering below to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens.
Fruit very late, season long; one and three-eighth inches by one and one-quarter inches in size, oval or roundish-oval, sometimes slightly compressed, halves unequal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt; suture shallow, wide; apex one-sided, roundish or depressed; color purplish-red changing to purplish-black, mottled, overspread with thick bloom, dots numerous, very small, inconspicuous, scattered between irregular flecks and nettings; stem thirteen-sixteenths inch long, lightly pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin thick, tender, adhering; flesh dull yellowish, juicy, sweet, mild, pleasant; good; stone usually clinging, seven-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, irregularly oval, flattened, faintly pitted, acute at the base, blunt at the apex; ventral suture wide, heavily furrowed, swollen; dorsal suture widely and shallowly grooved.
IMPERATRICE
Prunus domestica