Bavay is one of the best of the green plums—a worthy rival in all respects and in some superior to its parent Reine Claude. It is unexcelled as a dessert plum and its delicious flavor is retained in cooking, making the somewhat rare combination of a first rate dessert and a first rate culinary fruit. Bavay is not only satisfactory in the qualities which make it desirable to the consumer but it is a good market plum for it both keeps and ships well. The flavor is not quite equal to that of Reine Claude, one of the best of all plums in quality, but in tree-characters the Bavay surpasses the older variety. The trees bear young, annually and heavily, sometimes too heavily, and while not as hardy, as large, as robust or as long-lived as could be wished, yet in these respects they are superior to those of most of the varieties of Reine Claude plums. Some horticulturists recommend that the Bavay be top-worked on a more vigorous, hardy and longer-lived stock but the behavior of trees so treated in this vicinity makes top-working a very doubtful expedient. Lombard is usually recommended as a stock upon which to work it. Bavay is indispensable in home orchards and can be recommended for much more general planting in commercial orchards.
This variety is a seedling of Reine Claude produced by Major Esperin of Malines, Belgium, about 1832, and dedicated by him in 1843, to M. De Bavay, Director of the Royal Nurseries, at Vilvordes, near Brussels. Though this variety is distinct from its parent in tree-characters, in having a later season, smaller fruit and a different flavor, the two plums have become confused by many nurserymen and horticulturists. In 1856, the American Pomological Society placed Bavay on its fruit catalog list where it still remains.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, open-topped, hardy, very productive, somewhat susceptible to sunscald; branches smooth except for the few, large, raised lenticels, light ash-gray; branchlets medium in thickness and length, with internodes of variable length, dull brownish-red, pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, pointed, appressed.
Leaves folded backward, oval, or slightly obovate, wide, long, thick; upper surface nearly smooth, covered sparsely with hairs; lower surface thickly pubescent, especially along the midrib and larger veins; apex acute; margin crenate, glandless; petiole thick, long, tinged lightly with red, glandless or with from one to three globose, greenish-yellow glands on the stalk or base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, whitish or creamy at the apex of the petals; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-eighths inch long, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, obconic, pubescent at the base; calyx-lobes rather broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals broadly obovate, crenate, tapering below to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments three-eighths inch long; pistil pubescent on the ovary, longer than the stamens.
Fruit late, season long; of medium size, roundish-oval, halves equal; cavity intermediate in depth and width, abrupt; suture a line; apex roundish; color greenish-yellow changing to dark straw-yellow, obscurely streaked and splashed, covered with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, grayish, obscure, clustered about the apex; stem thick, short, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin rather tough, separating readily; flesh rich golden-yellow, juicy, slightly fibrous, tender, sweet, pleasant flavor; very good; stone free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, oval, slightly necked, blunt at the apex, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture winged, deeply furrowed; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
BEJONNIERES
Prunus insititia
1. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 898. 1869. 2. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 472. 1887. 3. Ibid. 453. 1906.
Des Béjonnières 2, 3. Prune des Béjonnières 1.