Fruit late, season long; about one and one-quarter inches in diameter, roundish-oblate, truncate, purplish-black, overspread with very heavy bloom; flesh bright golden-yellow, fibrous, very sweet, rather high-flavored; good to very good; stone semi-free, three-quarters inch by five-eighths inch in size, irregular roundish-oval, turgid, with a blunt and oblique base, the surfaces nearly smooth; ventral suture enlarged, often with a short, distinct wing; dorsal suture shallow.
STODDARD
Prunus americana
1. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 78. 1892. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 88. 1895. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 38. 1899. 4. Ia. Sta. Bul. 46:289. 1900. 5. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 478, Pl. LXII. 1902.
Baker 2. Stoddart 1, 2.
Stoddard is usually rated as one of the best of the Americana plums and its behavior on the grounds of this Station sustains its reputation. The firmness of the fruit makes it a good shipping plum of its kind and season. This variety was discovered by B. F. Stoddard of Jesup, Buchanan County, Iowa, about 1875, growing in a garden owned by Mrs. Caroline Baker who stated that her husband secured the trees from the woods, presumably along the Maquoketa River. The variety was subsequently introduced by J. Wragg and Sons of Waukee, Iowa, at dates variously reported from 1890 to 1895.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, productive; trunk shaggy; branches slender, thorny; branchlets slender, with conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaves falling early, flattened, oval or obovate, two and one-quarter inches wide, four inches long; margin coarsely serrate, eglandular; petiole tinged red, glandless or with from one to three glands usually on the stalk; blooming season late; flowers appearing with the leaves, one inch across, white.
Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; about one and three-eighths inches in diameter, roundish-oblate; suture a distinct red line; color light to dark red over a yellow ground, mottled, covered with thick bloom; skin astringent; flesh dark golden-yellow, very juicy, tender and melting, rather sweet next the skin but tart near the center, with a characteristic flavor; good; stone clinging, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, roundish to broad-oval, strongly flattened, with smooth surfaces; ventral suture narrow, winged.
STONELESS
Prunus insititia