Cultivar 391: De Soto

De Soto is a native plum. Several South Dakota station sources identify it as a standard variety of Prunus americana from southwestern Wisconsin. [S5] [S7] Prairie fruit literature treats it as an established cultivar, not a new release. By 1897 it was already fruiting in South Dakota. [S8] By 1904, the Minnesota State Horticultural Society recommended it for general cultivation. [S3]

The record is strongest on De Soto's role in northern plum culture. Growers and station writers treated it as one of the dependable native plums of the upper Midwest and northern plains. A South Dakota county report called it the best all around plum for the state. It praised its extreme productiveness and endurance of drought and cold, and said trees on their own roots had not missed a crop for nine years without special care. [S8] Another station bulletin cited De Soto as a good example of a plum that is productive on its own roots. It used De Soto to support the broader recommendation to plant own root plums whenever they can be obtained. [S3]

Fruit descriptions are limited in this packet, but a few practical traits are clear. De Soto is treated as a freestone plum in cooking and is specifically recommended for plum butter. One source says butter made from De Soto can equal or surpass peach butter. [S3] At the same time, northern reports show that quality and season could vary by region. A Manitoba observer said De Soto was highly praised elsewhere but tasted so acid there that no one wanted to use it. [S3] Another South Dakota note says it was too late in some seasons. Reports from North Dakota and Manitoba say the fruit often failed to ripen fully that far north, even where some trees were fairly hardy. [S8] [S3]

De Soto also mattered as breeding material. Hansen's bulletins repeatedly name it as the male parent in hardy plum and sand cherry hybrids, including Sansoto, Cheresoto, Skuya, and Tokata. [S5] [S6] [S7] In those crosses, it appears as a source of established native plum character, while the breeding work aimed to combine its plum size and growth habit with other, hardier or higher quality material. [S5] De Soto was also used in experimental crosses with Belgian Purple pollen. [S4]

As a tree, De Soto appears in two distinct propagation contexts. On its own roots, it is presented as durable and productive under prairie conditions. [S3] [S8] On western sand cherry stock, it was used in stock trials and illustration plates, where it appears as a dwarf, early bearing tree suited to bush form and small gardens. [S1] [S2] Those rootstock notes describe training and compatibility, not a separate origin for the cultivar itself. The hardiness evidence is best read in two parts: the tree had a strong reputation in South Dakota plum culture, but farther north the fruit could be too late, with ripening rather than tree survival becoming the main limit. [S3] [S8]

Summary source basis

• S1: The Western Sand Cherry
• S2: Breeding Hardy Fruits
• S3: Plums in South Dakota
• S4: New Hybrid Fruits
• S5: Some New Fruits
• S6: Progress in Plant Breeding
• S7: Plant Introductions
• S8: Fruit Culture

This summary currently draws chiefly from Plums in South Dakota, with 8 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“The trees in that adverse note were later said to have been not on Sand Cherry roots at all, but misobserved.”
— ^[3]

“When planted outdoors these dwarf trees are equally precocious in their blossoming and fruiting.”
— ^[4]

“The adverse note stated that some of the trees fruited in 1897 and all of them fruited in 1898.”
— ^[3]

“The dwarf form is described as desirable in the small amateur garden.”
— ^[4]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• Served as the female parent in a cross with Belgian Purple plum pollen.
• De Soto plum pollen is named as the pollen parent in the cross Red June x De Soto plum pollen used for the seedlings described on this page.
• Table 7 includes one tested variety derived from De Soto x Burbank and one from Burbank x De Soto.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• Inotice the De Soto is highly praised by many of your members, but here they taste so acid that no one will use them; the Cheney on the contrary, has no acidityPlums in South Dakota, p13
• 1 De Soto x Burbank ... 1 Burbank x De SotoPollination Studies with Stone Fruits, p5
• De Soto plum 4 F Early Good P. americanaPollination Studies with Stone Fruits, p7
• De Soto plum 4 F Early Good P. americanaPollination Studies with Stone Fruits, p7

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context