Volume 25 Number 4 Article 4 Pages: 80-81
Year 1971 Month 10
Title: Varieties of Western Sandcherry (Prunus besseyi)
Author: R. Erskine
Citation
Abstract:
Professor Niels E. Hansen was the
pioneer in Western Sandcherry selection
at the South Dakota Experimental
Station at Brookings, South Dakota,
where he was head of the Department
of Horticulture at South Dakota
State College for 42 years.
Professor
I Hansen had been introduced to the Western sandcherry by the famous
botanist, Professor Charles E. Bessey,
whose name the sandcherry bears.
Hansen was taught by Professor Bessey
at Iowa State College, at Ames,
where he obtained his degree in 1887.
The Western sandcherry is one of
the Great Plains' most important native
fruits.
It is found westward from
Dakota, Iowa and Kansas to Colorado
and Utah and north to Manitoba.
The
Sioux Indians and early settlers used
it extensively.
The bush seldom grows
more than four or five feet tall.
It
fruits in clusters all along the
branches, which are generally stolons
shooting from the ground.
The fruit,
which is cherry-size, is often borne in
immense crops; and, although many
are sour and inedible, the berries are
good eaten fresh, or for jams and jellies.
On some bushes, the fruit have
large pits; but on others, relatively
small pits, such as in a sweet cherry.
Prunus besseyi grows under extremely
sereve conditions of drought and cold,
being hardy at 50° to 60° below zero;
and it seems to be completely disease
resistant.
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