POTTAWATTAMIE
Prunus munsoniana
1. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 287. 1887. 2. Pop. Gard. 3:27 fig. 1887. 3. Cornell Sta. Bul. 38:64. 86. 1892. 4. Mich Sta. Bul. 123:20. 1895. 5. Ia. Sta. Bul. 31:346. 1895. 6. Wis. Sta. Bul. 63:53. 1897. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 25. 1897. 8. Ohio Sta. Bul. 113:156. 1899. 9. Ia. Sta. Bul. 46:287. 1900. 10. Waugh Plum Cult. 199 fig. 1901. 11. Ga. Sta. Bul. 67:279. 1904.
The plum under notice is possibly of greater cultural value than any other of its species especially for northern latitudes. It is of high quality for a native plum, the texture of the fruit being especially pleasing in eating, and though melting and juicy it keeps and ships very well because of a tough skin. It escapes both the curculio and the brown-rot to a higher degree than most of its kind. The trees, though dwarfish at maturity, are vigorous, productive and among the hardiest of the Munsoniana plums, growing without danger of winter injury to tree or bud as far north as the forty-fourth parallel. Pottawattamie is deservedly one of the best known of the native plums and if varieties of its species are to be grown in New York, is as desirable as any.
Pottawattamie, according to the most authoritative accounts, was taken from Tennessee to Iowa with a lot of Miner trees. It came under the notice of J. B. Rice, Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1875, and was introduced by him and named after one of the counties of his State.
Tree medium in size, strong and vigorous when young becoming spreading and somewhat dwarfish when older, round-topped, hardy at Geneva, usually productive; branches dark brown, zigzag, thorny, roughened by the numerous, raised lenticels of various sizes which are often narrow and much elongated; branchlets slender, long, with internodes of medium length, greenish-red changing to dark chestnut-red, glabrous, with numerous, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, free.
Leaves flat or folded upward, lanceolate, peach-like, one and one-eighth inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, thin; upper surface light green, reddish late in the season, smooth, glossy, with a grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, lightly pubescent along the midrib and larger veins; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin finely serrate or crenate, with small, reddish glands; petiole one inch long, slender, tinged red, thinly pubescent, glandless or with from one to five very small, globose, reddish-yellow glands usually on the stalk.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the leaves, five-eighths inch across, creamy-white as the buds unfold changing to whitish, with a disagreeable odor; borne in clusters from lateral buds, in threes, fours or fives; pedicels five-eighths inch long, very slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, broadly obconic, glabrous, calyx-lobes narrow, somewhat acute, pubescent on the inner surface, serrate, with reddish glands and hairy margin, erect; petals small, oval, slightly toothed, narrowly clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit early, season of medium length; variable in size ranging from seven-eighths inch to one and one-eighth inches in diameter, roundish-oval, slightly compressed, halves equal; cavity very shallow and narrow, abrupt; suture indistinct; apex roundish or depressed; color clear currant-red, with thin bloom; dots few, medium to large, whitish, somewhat conspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem very slender, three-quarters inch long, glabrous, adhering poorly to the fruit; skin tough, cracking under unfavorable conditions, separating readily; flesh deep yellow, juicy, fibrous, tender and melting, sweet next the skin but sour at the center, of pleasant flavor; fair to good in quality; stone clinging closely, five-eighths inch by three-eighths inch in size, narrow, long-oval, turgid, smooth, flattened and necked at the base, abruptly sharp-tipped at the apex; ventral suture acute, inconspicuous; dorsal suture blunt, faintly grooved.