The plums of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

4. P. DOMESTICA 5. P. INSITITIA 6. P. HORTULANA

7. P. MUNSONIANA 8. P. NIGRA 9. P. TRIFLORA

The size, shape and color of leaf-buds and of their outer and inner scales and the margins of the scales differ in different species. Possibly the most evident, and therefore readiest means of identifying species, at least, is by the leaves. It is true that leaves are very variable but always within limits, and either individually or collectively in giving the general aspect to a tree they are characteristic. Modifications of leaves most often occur in very young plants, those growing in bright sunshine or deep shade and on sprouts or suckers, but none of these are usually sufficient to mislead as to species. Leaf-size and leaf-form are the first characters to be noted in determining a plum but these are closely followed in value by leaf-color, leaf-surface, leaf-thickness and leaf-margin. Leaf-size is variable, depending much upon the conditions noted above but leaf-form varies but little in the several species. So, too, the color of leaves is very constant throughout a species, for both surfaces, though impossible to describe accurately in words and very difficult to reproduce in color-printing. There is a marked difference in autumnal tints not only of species but of varieties but these are not very constant in any one location and must vary greatly under different environments. The thickness of the leaves of the several species is a distinctive character. Species of plums have very different leaf-surfaces as regards reticulation, rugoseness, pubescence and coriaceousness, all of these characters being quite constant, though it is to be noted that roughness of leaves and pubescence are increased by exposure to the sun and by the influence of some soils. There is, indeed, considerable variation in the pubescence of the leaves of all species of plums in different parts of the country and probably too much has been made of pubescence as a determining character.

The margins of leaves are very characteristic of species and scarcely vary under normal conditions if the teeth at the middle of the sides be taken rather than those toward the base or apex, these very often being crowded, reduced or wanting. The presence of glands, their position, size, shape and color, help to characterize several species and seem to be fairly constant guides. Some species and a great number of varieties have the distinguishing marks of gland-like prickles tipping the serrations in the leaf-margins. Length, thickness, rigidity and pubescence of petiole have some taxonomic value. Stipules usually offer no distinguishing marks other than those mentioned under leaves.

The blossoms of plums are very characteristic, giving in flowering time a distinctive aspect to all species and distinguishing some horticultural varieties. The flowers of all the species are borne in clusters, differing in number of individuals, according to the species; so, too, the flowers in the different species vary in size, color, in length of their peduncles, and in pubescence, especially of the calyx. Flower-characters are constant, taking them as a whole, yet there are some variations that must be noted. One of the most marked of these is in the time of appearance of the flowers; in the South they appear before the leaves but in the North with the leaves. On the grounds of this Station there are notable exceptions to the latter statement, with varieties of species showing considerable variation in this regard. There are some remarkable variations within species as regards size and color of the corolla and glands and pubescence of the calyx, depending upon the environment of the plant; but on the whole these characters are very constant. The fragrance of the flowers of plums varies from a delicate, agreeable odor to one that is quite disagreeable in some species as in Americana; the odor seems to be a constant character.

Of all structures of the plum the fruit is most variable, yet fruits are sufficiently distinct and constant, especially within species, to make their characters very valuable in classification. Species, whether wild or cultivated, may be distinguished in greater or less degree by the period of ripening of the fruits, though in this regard the cultivated varieties of the several species vary greatly and in the wild state trees of native plums in the same locality, even in the same clump, may vary in ripening as much as from two to four weeks. Species are distinguished by size, shape, color, flesh, flavor and pit among the grosser characters of the structure and by amount of bloom, stem, cavity, apex, suture and skin among the minor characters. The fruit is usually the first part of the plant to respond to changed conditions.

Characters derived from seed structures are generally accounted of much value by botanists in determining species. Such is the case with plums. This Station has a collection of stones of over three hundred cultivated varieties of plums and some specimens of nearly all the different species. The stones illustrated in the color-plates in this book show that this structure is quite variable in size, shape, in the ends, surfaces, grooves and ridges, even within a species; nevertheless in describing the several hundred forms of plums for The Plums of New York the stone has been quite as satisfactory, if not the most satisfactory, of any of the organs of this plant for distinguishing the various species and varieties.

The reproductive organs of plums afford several characters and would seem to offer means of distinguishing botanical and horticultural groups, but they are so variable in both cultivated and wild plants as to be very misleading. Not only do these organs differ very often in structure but also in ability to perform their functions. Bailey[1] has called attention to the remarkable self-sterility of some varieties of the native species of plums, due to the impotency of the pollen upon flowers of the same variety. C. W. H. Heideman[2] made some very interesting observations on what he considers distinct forms of the flowers of the Americana plums, describing for this species all of the six possible variations of flowers enumerated by Darwin in his Different Forms of Flowers in Plants of the Same Species. Heideman thinks that other species of Prunus exhibit similar variations. Waugh[3] made the pollination of plums a subject of careful and extended study and found much variation in the pistils of plants of the same species, insufficient pollen in some plants, pollen impotent on the stigma of the same flower, and considerable difference in the time of maturity of pollen and stigma in some plums, especially the Americana plums. These variations, most important to the plum-grower, are of more or less use in identifying plums.