Of the horticultural possibilities of Prunus angustifolia, little can be said from this Station as the trees cannot be grown here. But since the species has been so long known, and is so near at hand to fruit-growers, without more of its offspring coming under cultivation, it is not likely that it may be counted upon to bring forth much in the future for the orchard. Such trees and fruits of this species as the writer has seen are not at all promising for the cultivator.
PRUNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA WATSONI (Sargent) Waugh[137]
1. Waugh Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:239. 1899. 2. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 1450 fig. 1901.
P. watsoni. 3. Sargent Gar. and For. 7:134, fig. 1894. 4. Waugh Bot. Gaz. 26:53. 1898. 5. Bailey Ev. Nat. Fr. 218. 1898.
Shrub four to ten feet high; branches slender, short-jointed, zigzag, reddish-brown; branchlets at first bright red and lustrous, later becoming brownish-red or sometimes ashy-gray; lenticels few and light-colored; leaves small, ovate, apex acute, base rounded or cuneate, margins finely crenulate; upper surface glabrous, shining, lower surface paler, glabrous; petioles reddish, one-half inch in length, biglandular at the apex.
Flowers in fascicles of two to four, borne with or before the leaves and in great abundance; calyx cup-shaped, the lobes acute, eglandular, ciliate on the margins, pubescent on the inner surface; petals white, obovate, contracted into a claw at the base; filaments glabrous, anthers reddish, style slender, exserted; pedicels one-quarter inch long.
Fruit two-thirds inch in diameter, globose, sometimes oblong, orange-red, bloomless, handsome; skin thin, rather tender; flesh yellow, juicy, tender, pleasant flavor; of comparatively high quality; stone somewhat turgid, compressed at the apex, thick-walled, rounded on the ventral and sometimes on the dorsal suture.
Prunus angustifolia watsoni is the Sand plum of the plains, being an inhabitant of southern and southeastern Nebraska and central and western Kansas and possibly passing into western Oklahoma. It is usually found along the banks of streams and rivers where it often forms shrubby thickets. The wild plums are held in high esteem for dessert and culinary purposes, becoming a commercial product in parts of the region in which they grow, and are occasionally transplanted to the garden or orchard. From such transplantings a half dozen varieties have arisen. The productiveness, hardiness to heat and cold and the size and quality of the fruits should attract plum-growers in the region of its habitat and experimenters elsewhere as well. Waugh[138] gives the following interesting sketch of the use to which this plum has been put in Kansas:
“Early settlers in Kansas, before their own orchard plantings came into bearing, used to find the sand plums well worth their attention. In July and August everybody for fifty miles back from the Arkansas sand hills used to flock thither to pick, and it was an improvident or an unlucky family which came off with less than four or five bushels to can for winter. Whole wagon loads of fruit were often secured, and were sometimes offered for sale in neighboring towns.