17. PRUNUS TARDA Sargent
1. Sargent Bot. Gaz. 33:108. 1902. 2. Ibid. Sil. N. Am. 13:23, Pl. 632. 1902.
Tree from twenty to twenty-five feet in height; trunk tall, eighteen or twenty inches in diameter; bark light brown, reddish, thick, with flat ridges and plate-like scales; branches spreading, forming an open symmetrical head; branchlets slender, at first light green and tomentose becoming glabrous, light brownish and lustrous, and the second year much darker; lenticels small, dark, scattered.
Leaves oblong to obovate, apex acute and sharp-pointed, base rounded or cuneate, margin finely serrate with incurved, glandular teeth, in texture thick and firm; upper surface glabrous, dark yellow-green, lower surface pubescent, pale green; petioles stout, tomentose or pubescent, short, eglandular or with two stalked, dark glands at the apex; stipules acicular, often bright red, small.
Flowers three-quarters inch across, appearing before and with the leaves; borne in two or three-flowered umbels, on slender, glabrous pedicels; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, hairy above, the lobes acute, entire, villose on the outer, tomentose on the inner surface; petals oblong-obovate with a short claw at the base; filaments and pistils glabrous.
Fruit maturing very late; short-oblong to sub-globose, one-third to one-half inch in length, red, yellow, purple, black or blue; skin tough and thick; flesh thick and acid; stone adhering to the flesh, ovoid, more or less compressed, very rugose, ridged on the ventral and grooved on the dorsal suture, acute at the apex, rounded at the base.
Prunus tarda, locally known as the Sloe, as are many other plums, was named from specimens collected in 1901 near Marshall, Texas, by Sargent and others. Sargent, to whom is due what field knowledge we have of the plant, gives its range from where found in Texas to western Louisiana and southern Arkansas. He says that it resembles and is often confounded with Prunus umbellata but may be distinguished from it by its bark, which differs from that of any other American plum tree, being more like that of the chinquapin chestnut with which it grows; by the pubescence on the leaves, not usually found on those of Prunus umbellata; and by its variously colored fruit which ripens much later than that of other plums in the region. From what has been published in regard to the species one gathers little in regard to its horticultural possibilities though the statements that it bears great quantities of fruit and is used locally for culinary purposes indicate that it may have some value under cultivation.
18. PRUNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA Marshall
1. Marshall Arb. Am. 111. 1785. 2. Torrey and Gray Fl. N. Am. 1:407. 1840. 3. Loudon Arb. Fr. Brit. 2:705. 1844. 4. Sargent 10th Cen. U. S. 9:66. 1883. 5. Watson and Coulter Gray’s Man. Ed. 6:152. 1889 (in part). 6. Gray For. Trees N. A. 47, Pl. 1891. 7. Sargent Sil. N. Am. 4:25, Pl. 152. 1892. 8. Mohr Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 6:551. 1901.
P. chicasa. 9. Michaux[132] Fl. Bor. Am. 1:284. 1803. 10. Nuttall Gen. N. Am. Pl. 1:302. 1818. 11. Elliott Sk. Bot. S. C. and Ga. 1:542. 1821. 12. Hall Pl. Texas 9. 1873. 13. Ridgway Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 65. 1882. 14. Chapman Fl. Sou. U. S. 131. 1897.