North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

[I use Gmail and simply highlighted this image in the website, copied the
image file and pasted it into my message to the list, as you see below.]

Plum - Kuban Burgandy - My Edible Landscape
http://edible.wikidot.com/edible-plant:91

[image: Image Unavailable]

Raintree Nursery imported this variety from Abkhazia where it was developed
near the Kuban River valley. It was imported to the US with the help of
Gennady Eremin at the Krymsk Research Station in southern Russia. This
variety was tested for years at the Mt. Vernon fruit research station north
of Seattle, and it performed well. The red plums have blood-red flesh with
hints of bing cherry taste. The fruit is hard to spot in the tree because
it is almost the same color as the leaves. It is pollinated by
Japanese-type plums. Raintree no longer sells this variety. Kuban Burgandy
was developed from the cross Satsuma x Myrobalan (Prunus cerasifera).
Satsuma is a Japanese plum Introduced in 1889 by Luther Burbank. The story
of Satsuma Plum is found below.

Luther Burbank's own words on Satsuma Plum as recalled in 1914:
"Browsing among the books of the Mercantile Library in San Francisco, I had
chanced to come upon an account of the wanderings in Japan of an American
sailor, and what particularly held my attention was his mention of a
red-fleshed plum of exceptional quality that he had seen and eaten in the
Province of Satsuma in southern Japan. That red-fleshed plum appealed to
me, and I determined to secure a specimen of it for my own orchards.

The sailor reported in his book that he had seen a single plum tree bearing
this "blood-plum of Satsuma." But of course the rarity of the fruit made it
the more alluring. So in due course when I came to make importations of
native seeds, plants, and bulbs from Japan, I urged Mr. Isaac Bunting, an

English bulb dealer in Yokohama
<http://motors.shop.ebay.com/eBay-Motors-/6000/i.html?_nkw=yokohama&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_rdc=1>
who collected these for me, to visit the southern part ol that country and
make a par- ticular effort to procure with others some of the red-fleshed
plums.

Mr. Bunting complied with my request, but, vastly to my disappointment, the
first lot of young trees he shipped to me arrived (Nov. 5, 1884) in such
condition that I despaired of doing anything with them. I immediately sent
a request for another shipment, and gave definite instructions as to
packing.

A little over a year later, on Dec. 20, 1885, there arrived the twelve
seedlings to which I have already referred. And this time, to my great
satisfaction, the tiny trees w r ere found in good condition.

Among the twelve seedlings was a representative of the race about which the
sailor had written and about which I had read with such interest years
before in the San Francisco Library. This was, in short, a plum with red
flesh, something hitherto unknown among the plums of Europe or America.

Red flesh in a plum is a character so conspicuous that it is not likely to
escape attention even of the least observing. And my red plum had other
qualities that made it well worthy of introduction. It first came into
bearing in 1887, and two years later it was introduced under the name of
Satsuma the name being suggested, as was that of its companion the Burbank,
by Professor H. E. Van Deman."