The plums of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

SATSUMA

Prunus triflora

1. Gard. Mon. 366, 367. 1887. 2. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 652, Pl. I fig., 636. 1887. 3. Gard. & For. 1:471. 1888. 4. Bailey Ann. Hort. 103. 1889. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 105, 106, 125. 1891. 6. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 54. 1892. 7. Cornell Sta. Bul. 62:29. 1894. 8. Rev. Hort. 458. 1894. 9. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 96. 1895. 10. Guide Prat. 165, 366. 1895. 11. Cornell Sta. Bul. 106:46, 53. 1896. 12. Ala. Col. Sta. Bul. 85:446. 1897. 13. Cornell Sta. Bul. 139:38, 42. 1897. 14. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 26. 1897. 15. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:243, 250. 1899. 16. Cornell Sta. Bul. 175:151. 1899. 17. Ohio Sta. Bul. 113:158. 1899. 18. Waugh Plum Cult. 141. 1901. 19. Mich. Sta. Bul. 187:77, 80. 1901. 20. Ga. Sta. Bul. 68:14, 33, 34. 1905. 21. De Vries Pl. Br. 170. 1907.

Beni Smono No. 4 ?6. Blood Plum 7, 9, 16, 18, 20. Blood Plum? 1. Blood Plum No. 4 ?9, 13. Blood Plum No. 4 ?11. Honsmomo 11. Honsmomo ?9, 11. Japan Blood Plum 3. Sanguine 10. Satsuma Blood 4. Yonemomo 5, 7, 9, 16, 20. Yonesmomo 5, 20.

There is a group of several varieties of Triflora plums unique in having the flesh deep red in color and very firm and juicy. Of these red-fleshed plums, Satsuma was the first to be introduced into fruit-growing in America and is one of the parents of most of the others. While the fruit is not as large nor as handsome in color as in some of its offspring, it is still one of the best varieties for quality of fruit and its trees are possibly as good as those of any of the other sorts of red-fleshed Trifloras. Satsuma, besides being one of the best of its class in quality for either dessert or culinary purposes, keeps and ships very well and if the plums are of sufficient size and have been allowed to color properly, the variety makes a good showing on the markets. Too often, however, it is so unattractive as it reaches the market that it does not sell well. In the South the plums are said to be much attacked by brown-rot but they are not more susceptible here than other plums. The trees are rather above the average for the species in size, habit, health, hardiness and productiveness though they bear sparingly when young. They bloom early in the season and are distinguished from other Triflora sorts by having many spurs and short branches along the main branches. Satsuma might possibly be found worth growing commercially in a very small way in some parts of the State.

Satsuma was raised from the same lot of plum pits from which the Burbank came, the seeds having been sent to Luther Burbank by a Japanese agent in 1883. In 1887 Burbank’s tree was the only bearing one in America but since then it has been tested in all of the large plum regions, having been introduced by Burbank in 1889. In 1897 it was added to the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society. Even though this plum is very distinct, with its solid red flesh, it is much confused with other sorts. A Japanese in a letter[222] to L. A. Berckmans says “Beni-Smomo comprises a group of red-fleshed plums. In Satsuma, my native home, Hon-smomo and Yone-smomo are the most noted and familiar fruits of this group, the first is the smallest in size and deepest in color, while the second is the largest and most highly esteemed. In some districts, plums in this group are called Uchi-Beni, which means red inside.” Hon-smomo or Blood Plum No. 4 was separated from the Satsuma or Yonemomo by the Georgia Horticultural Society but Bailey found them indistinguishable.

Tree medium to large, vigorous, upright-spreading, usually quite hardy, moderately productive, bearing heavier crops as the tree becomes older; branches grayish-brown; branchlets medium to above in thickness and length, with short internodes, dark chestnut-red, glabrous, with slightly raised lenticels of medium number and size; leaf-buds small, short, conical, appressed.

Leaves somewhat lanceolate, four inches by one and one-half inches in size, of medium thickness; upper surface dark green, with a shallow, grooved midrib; lower surface light green, glabrous; margin finely and doubly crenate, glandular; petiole three-quarters inch long, tinged red, with from one to three reniform, greenish-yellow glands variable in size, usually at the base of the blade.

Blossoms white; borne in pairs or in threes; pedicels nine-sixteenths inch long, slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes medium in width, acute, somewhat serrate, with dark colored glands, glabrous, erect; petals tapering below to claws of medium length, reddish at the base.