Cultivar 448: Prunus Simoni

Prunus Simoni is described in the South Dakota bulletins as an apricot plum from China. It was already widely grown in California by the early 1900s.[S1] In this archive, it appears less as a named prairie fruit than as an important species reference point: a distinct Chinese plum noted for fine fruit, but poorly adapted to South Dakota conditions.[S1][S2]

The South Dakota evaluation is blunt about hardiness. H. C. Warner of Forestburg, South Dakota, reported it as "Not hardy" in 1903, and that judgment was preserved in the station bulletin.[S1] No zone rating is given here, but the surviving evidence places Prunus Simoni outside the reliable hardy plum group for prairie conditions in that setting.[S1]

The fruit is only briefly described in these sources. The bulletins call it an apricot plum and identify China as its place of origin.[S1][S2] The packet does not give a fuller direct description of size, color, flavor, season, or keeping quality for Prunus Simoni itself.

Its broader significance in the record is as breeding material. One South Dakota bulletin identifies Prunus Simoni as the male parent of Tokeya. This shows that even though it lacked hardiness in South Dakota, it was still valued in hybrid breeding work at Brookings.[S2] That distinction matters: the sources here support Prunus Simoni as a parent used in later breeding, not as a hardy released cultivar for prairie planting.[S2]

What remains uncertain is how much its California reputation reflected fruit quality, commercial promise, or ornamental interest, because these pages do not go beyond the short species note and the breeding reference.[S1][S2] For Pomologica, Prunus Simoni stands as an important tender plum species at the edge of the cold climate story: not hardy in South Dakota, but influential enough to appear again in the parentage of later hybrid work.[S1][S2]

Summary source basis

• S1: Plums in South Dakota
• S2: Some New Fruits

This summary currently draws chiefly from Plums in South Dakota.

Featured source descriptions

“The hardiness note is attributed to H. C. Warner, Forestburg, S. D., 1903.”
— ^[1]

“Not hardy.”
— ^[1]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• No direct breeding_cross claim text yet.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• Prunus Simoni. An apricot plum from China, now much raised in California. "Not hardy." (H. C. Warner, Forestburg, S. D., 1903.)Plums in South Dakota, p33
• Prunus Simoni. An apricot plum from China, now much raised in California. "Not hardy." (H. C. Warner, Forestburg, S. D., 1903.)Plums in South Dakota, p33
• Prunus Simoni. An apricot plum from China, now much raised in California. "Not hardy." (H. C. Warner, Forestburg, S. D., 1903.)Plums in South Dakota, p33

Taxonomy context: Genus: Prunus | open genus tree

Related cultivars mentioned in source context