Polymorphism in cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) and its significance for stone crop breeding

A gene pool of cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera Ehrh.) numbering over 1000 accessions including wild forms and released cultivars of various origins has been gathered at the Krymsk Experiment Breeding Station, a branch of VIR. The study of the morphological diversity of cherry plum, or myrobalan plum, made it possible to clarify its position within the system of the genus Prunus L., and to propose an intraspecific system composed of three subspecies: Prunus cerasifera subsp. cerasifera – the typical cherry plum, P. cerasifera subsp. orientalis (M. Pop.) Erem. et Garcov. – the oriental cherry plum, and P. cerasifera subsp. macrocarpa Erem. et Garcov. – the large-fruited cherry plum with the following several varieties: Armenian (P. cerasifera subsp. macrocarpa var. nairica (Koval.) Erem. et Garkov.), Georgian (var. georgica (Erem.) Erem. et Garcov.), Iranian (subsp. macrocarpa var. iranica (Koval.) Erem. et Garcov), Pontic (subsp. macrocarpa var. pontica (Koval.) Erem. et Garcov.), Tauric (subsp. macrocarpa var. taurica (Kost.) Erem. et Garcov.), and the red-leaved cherry plum (Pissard plum) (subsp. macrocarpa var. pissardii (Carriere) Koehne).

The most important role of interspecific hybridization involving the species P. cerasifera is in the origin of a number of Prunus L. species, including domestic plum P. domestica L., Fenzl’s almond P. fenzliana Fritsch, and black apricot P. dasycarpa Ehrh., has been established.

The cherry plum gene pool had been found to contain donors of a number of traits of importance for breeding, which were used to create an assortment of Russian plum (Prunus × rossica Erem., hybrid myrobalan plum) cultivars and clonal rootstocks of stone fruit crops. Among them, the Russian plum ‘Globus’, ‘Kubanskaya Kometa’, ‘Gek’, ‘Kolonnovidnaya’, ‘Iyulskaya Roza’, and clonal rootstocks ‘Kuban 86’, ‘VVA 1’, ‘Evrika 99’, ‘Best’, ‘Zarevo’ have been regionally adapted and got a wide distribution.

An outstanding general combining ability was demonstrated by cherry plum cvs. ‘Pionerka’, ‘Purpurovaya’, ‘Otlichtnitsa’, ‘Ashtarakskaya 2’ and ‘Tsiteli Drosha’, which were used in breeding a number of cherry plum cultivars at the Krymsk EBS, e.g. cherry plums ‘Neberdzhaevskaya Rannyaya’, ‘Kremen’, Russian plum ‘Kubanskaya Kometa’, ‘Iyulskaya Roza’, ‘Naydena’, ‘Gek’, ‘Podarok Sad-Gigantu’, etc.

Most effective was the hybridization of Crimean, Armenian and Georgian cherry plum cultivars with the Chinese plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) ‘Burbank’, ‘Gigant’, and ‘Skoroplodnaya’. As clonal rootstocks, the hybrids of myrobalan plum with peach (‘Kuban 86’ and ‘Fortuna’ rootstocks), with cherry plum ‘Sapa’ (‘Evrika 99’ and ‘Spiker’ rootstocks), as well as with low micro-cherry (rootstock ‘Best’) and Louiseania ulmifolia (Franch.) Pachom. (rootstock ‘Upriamets’) turned out to be very valuable.

1. Bogushevsky P.N., Victorovsky G.P. Myrobalan plum (Alycha). Plodovye Srednego Tadzhikistana = Fruit Plants of Central Tajikistan. 1935;(13):20-40. [in Russian]

2. Bregadze N.N. The composition of the species Prunus cerasifera Ehrh. (Sostav vida Prunus cerasifera Ehrh.). Proceedings of the Tbilisi Botanical Institute. 1948;12:175-198. [in Russian]

3. Dorofeyev V.I., Dubenskaja G.I., Yakovlev G.P. Botanical Illustrated Dictionary (Botanicheskiy Illyustrirovannyi Slovar). St. Petersburg; 2019. [in Russian]

4. Dorofeyev V.I., Yakovlev G.P. Botanical Dictionary (Botanicheskiy Slovar). St. Petersburg: SPCPA; 2014. [in Russian]

5. Ekimov V.T. Prunus divaricatа in Transcaucasia and the geographical variation of its characters. In: Proceedings of the USSR Congress of Genetics, Plant- and Animal-Breeding; 1929 January 10-16; Leningrad. Leningrad; 1929. Vol. 3. p.211-220. [in Russian]

6. Eremin G.V. Cherry plum (Alycha). Moscow: Agropromizdat; 1989. [in Russian]

7. Eremin G.V. The role of cherry plum – Prunus cerasifera Ehrh. in the origin, evolution and improvement of the assortment of stone fruit plants. Proceeding on applied Botany, Genetics and Breeding. 2020;181(4):136-143. [in Russian]. DOI: 10.30901/2227-8834-2020-4-136-143

8. Eremin G.V., Zaremuk R.Sh., Bogdanov R.E., Kovaleva V.V. (comp.). Catalog of passports of donors and sources of important breeding characteristics of plum, blackthorn and cherry plum. (Katalog pasportov donorov i istochnikov selektsionno-znachimykh priznakov slivy, tyorna i alychi). Eremin G.V. (ed.). Krymsk; 2009. [in Russian]

9. Georgberidze I.A., Ioffe R.M., Shvangiradze I.Ya., Burmistrova N.D. Tkemali (Tkemali). Trudy Vsesoyuznogo nauchno-issledovatelskogo instituta konservnoj promyshlennosti = Proceedings of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of the Canning Industry. 1954;4:118-125. [in Russian]

10. Kalmykov S.S. Wild fruits of South Kazakhstan (Dikorastushchie plodovye Yuzhnogo Kazakhstana). Trudy Instituta Zemledeliya im. V.R. Vilyamsa = Proceedings of the V.R. Williams Institute of Agriculture. 1956;5:176-291. [in Russian]

11. Khashba L.Kh. Myrobalan plum. Assortment and its culture in Abkhazia (Alycha, sortiment i kultura yeye v Abkhazii). Sukhumi: Alashara; 1966. [in Russian]

12. Kostina K.F. Cultural cherry plum of Crimea (Kulturnaya alycha Kryma). Proceedings of the V.M. Molotov State Nikitsky Botanical Garden. 1947;24(1):3-13. [in Russian]

13. Kovalev N.V. Cherry plum in nature, culture and breeding: geography, taxonomy, biology, culture and breeding (Alycha v prirode, kulture i selekcii: geografiya, sistematika, biologiya, kultura i selekciya). Tashkent: Academy of Sciences of the UzSSR; 1955. [in Russian]

14. Kupreishvili A.Yu. On the issue of extending the season for the production of canned food from tkemali fruits (K voprosu udlineniya sezona proizvodstva konservov iz plodov tkemali). Konservnaya i ovoshchesushitelnaya promyshlennost = Canning and vegetable drying industry. 1964;8:29-31. [in Russian]

15. Morikyan E.S. Cherry plum varieties of Ashtarak region and their biological characteristics. News of the Ministry of Production and Procurement of Agricultural Products. 1964;(11-12):120-128. [in Russian]

16. Popov M.G. Wild growing fruit trees and shrubs of Asia Media. Bulletin of Applied Botany, of Genetics and Plant-Breeding. 1929;22(3):241-483. [in Russian]

17. Rajabli A.D. Cherry plum varieties in Azerbaijan (Sorta alychi v Azerbajdzhane). Proceedings of the Azerbaijan Research Institute of Perennial Plantations. 1949;1:86-89. [in Russian]

18. Sedov E.N. (ed.). Pomology. Vol. 3. Stone fruits (Pomologiya. T. 3. Kostochkovye kultury). Orel: VNIISPK; 2008. [in Russian]

19. Sedov E.N. (ed.). Program and methodology for breeding fruit, berry and nut crops (Programma i metodika selektsii plodovykh, yagodnykh i orekhoplodnykh kultur). Orel: VNIISPK; 1995. [in Russian]

20. Sedov E.N., Ogoltsova T.P. (eds.). Program and methodology for the study of variety of fruit, berry and nut crops (Programma i metodika sortoizucheniya plodovykh, yagodnykh i orekhoplodnykh kultur). Orel: VNIISPK; 1999. [in Russian]

21. Vasilchenko I.T., Sokolov S.Ya. Cherry plum of South Kyrgyzstan (Alycha Juzhnoy Kirgizii). In: Fruit forests of southern Kyrgyzstan and their use: Proceedings of the South Kyrgyz expedition (Plodovye lesa Juzhnoj Kirgizii i ih ispol'zovanie: Trudy Yuzhno-Kirgizskoy ekspedicii). Moscow; Leningrad; 1949. Iss. 1. p.254-261. [in Russian]

22. Vavilov N.I. Wild progenitors of the fruit trees of Turkestan and the Caucasus and the problem of the origin of fruit trees. Bulletin of Applied Botany, of Genetics and Plant-Breeding. 1931;26(3):85-107. [in Russian]

23. Vermishyan A.M. Cherry plum (Alycha). In: Vermishyan A.M., Dilanyan G.Kh., Sanagyan M.B. The fruits of Armenia (Plody Armenii). Yerevan; 1958. p.161-175. [in Russian]

24. Zapriagaeva V.I. Wild fruits of Tajikistan (Dikorastushchie plodovye Tadzhikistana). Moscow; Leningrad: Nauka; 1964). [in Russian]