ITALIAN PRUNE
Prunus domestica
1. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 152. 1831. 2. Prince Pom. Man. 2:78. 1832. 3. Kenrick Am. Orch. 262. 1832. 4. Manning Book of Fruits 106. 1838. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 214, 220. 1836. 6. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 381. 1857. 7. Cultivator 8:52 fig. 1860. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 366. 1866. 9. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 924. 1869. 10. Pom. France 7: No. 22, fig. 1871. 11. Mas Le Verger 6:69, fig. 35. 1866-73. 12. Oberdieck Deut. Obst. Sort. 442. 1881. 13. Lauche Deut. Pom. No. 2, Pl. 4, 22. 1882. 14. Barry Fr. Garden 412. 1883. 15. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 360. 1887. 16. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 436. 1889. 17. Wickson Cal. Fruits 358. 1891. 18. Guide Prat. 155, 362. 1895. 19. Oregon Sta. Bul. 45:23 fig. 1897. 20. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:187, fig. 44. 1897. 21. Wash. Sta. Bul. 38:7, 8. 1899. 22. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 44:92. 1899. 23. Waugh Plum Cult. 111 fig. 1901. 24. U. S. D. A. Div. Pom. Bul. 10:6. 1901. 25. Mass. Sta. An. Rpt. 17:158. 1905.
Altesse Double 8, 9, 10, 15, 18. August Zwetsche 16. Auguste Zwetsche 10, 18. Blaue Riesenzwetsche 16, 18. Bleue d’Italie 15. Couetsche d’Italie 18. Couetsche Fellenberg 10, 18. D’Italie 18. Double Blackpruim 16, 18. Fausse Altesse 16, 18. Fellemberg 14. Fellemberg 8, 16, 18. Fellenberg 5, 9, 11, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23. Fellenburg 22. Fellenberg 5, 6, 7, 9, 17. Fellenburg 25. Feltemberg 10, 18. Fellenberg Quetsche 16, 18. Fellenberger Zwetsche 12, 13, 16, 18. Grosse Früh Zwetsche? 16. German Prune 19, 22. Italienische Blaue Zwetsche 11, 16. Italianische blaue zwetsche 18. Italian Guetsche 10, 18. Italian Prune 6, 7, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 25. Italian Quetsche 8, 9, 15, 16. Italianische Zwetsche 18. Italienische Pflaumen Zwetsche 16. Italienische Zwetsche 11, 13. Italianische Zwetsche 10. Italianische blanc Zwetsche 10. Italienische Zwetsche 12, 13, 16. Large German Prune 17. Prune d’Italie 8, 9, 10, 16. Pflaume mit dem Pfirschenblatt 18. Pflaume Mit dem Pfirsichblatt 16. Prune Suisse 6. Quetsche 18. Quetsche Bleue d’Italie 10, 11, 16, 18. Quetsche d’Italie 1, 10, 11, 15, 18. Quetsche d’Italie 3, 8, 9, 11, 16. Schweizer Zwetsche 12, 13, 16. Schweizerzwetsche 18. Swiss Prune 17, 19, 22. Semiana 8, 10, 16, 18. Turkish Prune 22. Zwetsche von Dätlikon 16, 18.
The Italian Prune is one of the most widely grown of all plums. Its home is Italy and it is grown in all of the plum regions of continental Europe; is well known in England; is third or fourth in popularity in the Atlantic States of America; is by long odds the leading plum in the Pacific Northwest where it is chiefly used in prune-making and is grown somewhat for prunes and for shipping green in California. There are several reasons why this plum is so popular. To begin with, it is finely flavored whether eaten out of hand, stewed or otherwise prepared for the table or cured as a prune. The fruit is a little too tart to be ranked as a first-rate dessert plum and yet it is one of the best of the prunes for this purpose, though it must be fully ripe to be fit for dessert; in cooking it changes to a dark, wine color, very attractive in appearance, with a most pleasant, sprightly flavor; as a cured prune the flesh is firm and meaty, yet elastic, of good color and a perfect freestone, making when cooked the same attractive looking, fine-flavored, sprightly sauce to be had from the green fruits; the prunes from this variety, too, are noted for long-keeping. In the uncured state the variety keeps and ships well. The trees are usually large, hardy, productive, well formed and bear regularly; yet they are not ideal and the variety fails chiefly in tree-characters. The trees are often capricious to soil and climate, do not always bear well, seem to be susceptible to diseases, are preyed upon by insects and suffer in particular from dry or hot weather. Were all of these troubles of the tree to befall the variety at one time it would of necessity give way to better sorts, but happily they are to be found for most part in illy-adapted conditions or in certain seasons; the Italian Prune well cared for in locations to which it is suited must long remain one of the leading plums despite the faults of the trees.
The Italian Prune originated in Italy at least a century ago and has long been common in northern Italy, especially in the vicinity of Milan. The London Horticultural Society catalog for 1831 first mentions it in England and the following year it was described in America by Prince as an excellent prune recently introduced from Europe. The American Pomological Society recommended it in 1856 as worthy of further testing and in 1862 it was added to the fruit catalog list of this society. The origin of the name Fellenberg, a very common synonym, is explained by Lauche[218] who says: “It came to Germany through a Mr. Fellenberg and is therefore spread under his name and also under the names Schweizerzwetsche and Fellenberger Zwetsche.” He further adds that the variety “is still not known in Germany as it deserves, considering its quality, size and productiveness.”
Tree of medium size, rather vigorous, spreading or upright, low-topped, hardy, usually productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with small, raised lenticels; branchlets short, with internodes of medium length, greenish-red changing to brownish-drab, pubescent, with small lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, appressed; leaf-scars large.
Leaves folded upward, obovate or oval, two inches wide, four and one-half inches long; upper surface dark green, pubescent; lower surface silvery-green, heavily pubescent; apex and base acute, margin doubly crenate, with small, dark glands; petiole five-eighths inch long, above medium thickness, pubescent, tinged red, with from one to three globose, greenish-brown glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom intermediate and short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and three-sixteenths inches across, in the buds tinged yellow, changing to white when expanded; borne on lateral spurs, rarely on lateral buds, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-quarters inch long, thick, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent at the base; calyx-lobes long and narrow, acute or narrowly obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces and along the glandular-serrate margin, reflexed, inclined to curl at the tips; petals oval or obovate, dentate, tapering to broad claws of medium length; anthers yellowish; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil pubescent at the base, equal to the stamens in length.