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Origins and History of Plum Trees
Historical information on American plums, wild goose plums, beach plums, chicasaw
plums and other varieties
History of Plum Trees and their Hybrids
Copyright © 2006 Patrick Malcolm
The documentation of ancient plums growing in antiquity is
sparse. The best evidence of that oldest existence is best
documented through America's most famous pomologist, Luther
Burbank, who reported in his twelve volume botanical literary
classic, Small Fruits, Volume IV page 136, that the European
plum, Prunus domestica, and its ancestor fruit originated in the
Caucasus Mountains near the Caspian Sea. Burbank detailed
evidence that the prune (dried plum) was a staple food of the
Tartars, Mongols, Turks, and Huns "who maintained a crude
horticulture from a very early period." Several websites have
put forth the absurd idea that, because the European plum, Prunus
domestica, seeds were not found in the ruins of Pompeii after the
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, "whereas, most other old
world fruits were," that this plum could be concluded to be a
recent hybrid of "spontaneous chromosome" doubling to produce a
hexaploid offspring.
The earliest reference to plum history in the American colonies
came from Prince Nursery of Flushing, New York, that was
established in 1737 and reported in 1771 in an advertisement "33
kinds of plums" for sale. These plum trees were no doubt
European plums, Prunus domestica.
After the year 1755, Henry Laurens, who was a guest and friend of
Wililam Bartram, introduced olives, limes, ginger, everbearing
strawberry, red raspberry, and blue grapes into the United
States. From the south of France he introduced apples, pears,
plums, and the white Chasselas grape which bore abundantly. Henry
Laurens lived in Charleston, South Carolina and served as a
President of the Continental Congress.
William Bartram described two species of American plums in his
famous book, Travels, in his 1792 trip to Georgia, where he
identified the Chicasaw plum, Prunus chicasaw, and in Alabama, he
found a wild plum, Prunus indica.
Luther Burbank contributed more toward improving and hybridizing
plum trees of different species than any other person in history.
His work on the plum group of stone fruits stands apart from any
other person for his unequaled contribution to improving various
fruits that are grown and enjoyed today.
Burbank states that his importation of twelve plum seedlings in
the year 1885 was the "most important importation of fruit
bearers ever made at a single time into America."
Burbank brought plums from all over the world and intercrossed
them in a giant "melting pot" to produce the best
characteristics and to reject the wrong ones. These genetic plum
mixtures were recombined for many generations and resulted in
plum hybrids today that are so different from the original
species as to appear to be new species.
Burbank stated that he spent more time hybridizing plums than
with any other plant breeding program, and he reported that he
screened 7.5 million plum hybrid seedling crosses before
releasing outstanding cultivars for sale. His famous line of plum
trees that were popular in the late 1890's are still admired and
grown commercially for sale and in backyard gardens today, such
as Burbank, Santa Rosa, Wickson, Golden, Satsuma, Shiro, and
Ozark Premier. His first huge success was applauded by USDA
Professor, H.E. Van Deman, who suggested that the pick-of-the-lot
creation of Luther Burbank be named after its creator, thus, the
"Burbank Plum."
The most successful crosses between plums come from the Japanese
plum, the most exotic, "Satsuma", the name suggested by
Professor H.E. Van Deman of the USDA, who identified it as being
imported from the Satsuma province in Japan. This unique plum
grew a red skin with a pale-blue netting bloom overlay. The pulp
was dark purplish-red, firm, tasty with an excellent quality to
be preferred for home use.
Burbank's experimental species were Japanese plums, Prunus
triflora, that grew wild in Japan and were pickled by the
natives. The Japanese plums grew in many colors in skin from
white to purple, were large and rather tasteless, but the
Japanese natives ate them while green and hard. The Japanese plum
genes appear to dominate most hybrid plum offspring. Chinese
plums, Prunus simonii, were aromatic, with rich colored skins, a
small pit, but the skin cracks and the fruit tastes bitter.
European plums, Prunus domestica, are varied in sizes, largest to
small, sweet or sour, complex genes, many colored skins, very
widely adaptable, good for fresh eating, drying, or canning. The
disadvantage: they are too juicy or watery. "Green Gage" is a
well known standard European cultivar. Prunes are very high in
sugar content.
Several species of America plums are very hardy and productive to
the extent of covering the ground in spring with several layers
of fruit. These plums can be tasty but have poor shipping
quality. Burbank released an excellent hybrid strain of this
cross called "Robinson plum."
Several American native plum species have been used in
hybridization experiments by Luther Burbank. American plums,
Prunus Americana, wild goose plums, Prunus hortulans, the
chicasaw plum, Prunus augustifolia, Western sand plum, Prunus
besseyi, the beach plum, Prunus maritima, and the California wild
plum, Prunus subcordata. These native plum trees are unusually
cold hardy and frigid temperatures do no harm to them, even in
the northernmost part of the central United States.
The "Myrobalan" plum originated as a French species, Prunus
cerasifera is used extensively as a peach tree and plum tree
rootstock that tends to be compatible with the resulting fruit
tree union and appears to be highly resistant to nematodes and
root diseases.
Burbank's goal in hybridizing plums was to produce a tree that
had "stability, novelty, variety, hardiness, beauty, shipping
quality and adaptability."
The plum leaves and twigs exhibit many subtle characteristics
that can be experienced by the plant hybridizer to predict the
future characteristics of fruit that will be grown from small
seedling crosses. Most hybridizers known from experience a
predictable outcome, even though these plant qualities are too
intangible to explain to an audience, like changing facial
expressions or minute variations of color changes. If the leaves
of a plant are dark red, the fruit will be red. This same
phenomenon is applicable to flowers such as the canna lily leaf
color, and the red rhizome color; or in the crinum lily
cultivars, a red bulb means a red flower; a light green bulb
means a white flower.
Luther Burbank developed a seedless plum by hybridizing a French
plum cultivar, "Sans noyaii". These plums develop into various
skin colors ranging from white to yellow, orange scarlet,
crimson, violet, deep blue, almost black, striped, spotted, and
mottled. These seedless plums were delicious and unique, but were
never commercially successful with growers or with public
demand.
Burbank crossed many plums that had a tendency to produce fruit
with a high sugar content, like the sweetness of figs, pineapple
and oranges. This high sugar content makes it possible for the
plum (prune) to insure long term preservation, when it is dried.
The prune contains a thick and tough skin of such texture that is
required to not crack when the commercial drying process begins
and proceeds to deliver a tasty, honey-sweet fruit that lasts
well.
A prune will not dry properly into a marketable fruit, unless the
plum contains a sugar concentration of at least 15%. Before
drying, the prune is submerged briefly into an alkali solution
that prevents future fermentation by preventing microbes from
growing on the surface of the skin. For satisfactory prune
production commercially, a prune tree must be a reliable grower
with an annual substantial crop of fruit. The prune must ripen
early, when the days are long and warm and must drop from the
tree to avoid expensive picking costs at the proper ripening
time. The prune fruit must cure and dry to a black color and grow
a small pit. Most prune hybrids have been hybridized from the
European plum, Prunus domestica.
There are also three ornamental varieties of flowering plum trees
recommend for planting: Newport, Prunus cerasifera 'Newport',
Purple Pony Prunus cerasifera 'Purple Pony', and Red Leaf Plum
Prunus cerasifera 'Thundercloud', flowering plum trees.
Burbank developed purple leaved plum trees from a French plum
ancestor with purple leaves, Prunus pissardi, that commercially
are sold as 'Thundercloud' flowering plum, Vesuvius, and
Othello. Some of these red leaf flowering plums developed by
Burbank grew delicious red fruit in addition to the beautiful red
ornamental leaves.
Plum fruit is rated high in antioxidant content that offers many
health benefits like Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin
C, Niacin, and the minerals; Calcium, Potassium, Phosphorus, and
Iron.
Burbank sifted out the complexities of plum hybridization and
even crossed the plum with the almond, Prunus dulcis, hoping to
create a tasty almond kernel and a tasty pulp. He created many
crosses with the Apricot, Prunus armeniaca L., and created
plumcot trees, a 50/50 blend of plum trees and apricot trees;
Pluot trees demonstrate a 75/25 blend of plum trees and apricot
trees; and Aprium trees a 75/25 blend of apricot trees and plum
trees.
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Written by: Patrick Malcolm. Learn more about various trees
by visiting the author's website:
http://www.tytyga.com
============================================================
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