Cultivar 475: Wood

Wood is an Americana plum. It was a wild found selection, not a named breeding cross, discovered by Joseph Wood at Windom, Minnesota. [S1] South Dakota station records treated it as part of the native American plum group, placing it in the hardy northern plum tradition rather than a formal breeding line. [S1]

The bulletin does not name a breeder, nursery release, or controlled parentage. It presents Wood as a plum brought in from the wild for trial and still under evaluation at the Station, where it had not yet fruited enough to prove its value. [S1] Wood is therefore less a release story than a record of early northern plum collecting and testing, when promising wild material was brought into experiment station orchards for comparison. [S1]

The fruit is described as large, firm, and attractive, roundish and somewhat flattened, with a slightly oblique form. [S1] Its ground color is a rich clear yellow, mostly covered with lively red and a thin bloom, with the red mottled by many dark red dots. [S1] The skin is thin, acid, and free from astringency. The flesh is firm, with a pleasant sub acid flavor and good quality. [S1] The pit is small and free. [S1]

Wood was also described as a good keeper. [S1] A 1902 note from A. Norby says it ripened with Cheney, bore a good crop, and measured about one and one fourth inches. He also called the skin soft and bitter, said the fruit dropped too easily, and reported that it rotted badly. [S1] In 1904 he again called it very productive, early, and large, but still too subject to rot for any use. [S1]

The tree appears to have been productive and hardy in regional observation, but the health record was poor. [S1] The Station noted some plum pocket on the tree, and during two seasons the fruit was quite subject to ripe rot. [S1] That helps explain why a plum praised for size, appearance, firmness, and bearing was still judged doubtful in practical value. [S1]

Hardiness is implied by its Minnesota wild origin and by Norby's description of it as hardy, but the bulletin does not give a formal zone rating. [S1] Its context is clearly Upper Midwest and northern Great Plains plum testing, where survival and cropping under prairie conditions were central concerns. [S1]

Wood has no recorded parentage in the source, and nothing here suggests it was used as a known breeding parent. [S1] Its importance is instead as an example of the Americana plum pool that northern experiment stations were examining for hardy, productive fruit. [S1] The surviving record preserves both sides of that promise: a handsome, large, firm native plum with good flesh and keeping ability, and a fruit that repeatedly disappointed because of rot and dropping. [S1]

Summary source basis

• S1: Plums in South Dakota

This summary currently draws chiefly from Plums in South Dakota.

Featured source descriptions

“The entry identifies Wood as a wild-found selection rather than a deliberate breeding release.”
— ^[1]

“Form roundish, flattened at both ends, somewhat oblique, with the apex slightly depressed.”
— ^[1]

“The cavity is unusually wide and deep and the suture is a wide line, sometimes shallow.”
— ^[1]

“During the past two seasons it was quite subject to ripe rot of the fruit.”
— ^[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

• Wood, Americana.Plums in South Dakota, p44
• Wood, Americana.Plums in South Dakota, p44
• Wood, Americana.Plums in South Dakota, p44
• Wood, Americana.Plums in South Dakota, p44

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context