Botanical classification: Prunus salicina. 
Variety denomination: xe2x80x98Autumn Yummy(copyright)xe2x80x99.
In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of plum tree, which has been denominated varietally as xe2x80x98Autumn Yummy(copyright)xe2x80x99. Yummy(copyright) is a U.S. Trademark, Ser. No. 75618722, owned by Johnny Appleseed Holdings Limited, Saint Georges Road South RD2, Hastings, New Zealand. Permission to use has been granted to the applicant by contract.
During a typical blooming season I isolate as seed parents both individual and groups of different plum trees by covering them with screen houses. A hive of bees is placed inside each such house and bouquets to provide pollen from different plum, apricot, and plum-apricot hybrid trees are placed near the trees approximately every three days for the duration of the bloom. During 1998 one such house with an individual tree of xe2x80x98Freedomxe2x80x99 (unpatented) was crossed by me in this manner. To pollinate this xe2x80x98Freedomxe2x80x99 tree, I selected bouquets from several sources that season without keeping written details. Upon reaching maturity the fruit from this xe2x80x98Freedomxe2x80x99 tree was harvested and the seeds were removed, cracked, stratified and germinated as a group with the label xe2x80x9cHouse12xe2x80x9d. They were grown as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse and, upon reaching dormancy, transplanted to a cultivated area of my experimental orchard at Bradford Farms near Le Grand, Calif. in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). During the summer of 2000, the present variety was selected as a single plant from the group of seedlings described above. Therefore, the variety was developed as a first generation cross using xe2x80x98Freedomxe2x80x99 (unpatented) as the selected seed parent and an undetermined plum as the pollen parent. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of plum tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of xe2x80x98Nemaguardxe2x80x99 (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is similar to its seed parent, xe2x80x98Freedomxe2x80x99 (unpatented), by being self-unfruitful and by producing plums that are dark purple to black in skin color, firm in texture, and fairly large in size, but is distinguished therefrom and an improvement thereon by producing plums that are mostly red instead of yellow in flesh color, that are sweeter in flavor, that are juicier, and that mature about twenty-five days later.
The present variety is most similar to xe2x80x98Angelenoxe2x80x99 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 2,747) plum by being self-unfruitful and by producing plums that are nearly black in skin color, globose to oblate in shape, firm in texture, and mature in the late season, but is distinguished therefrom and an improvement thereon by producing plums that are larger in size, sweeter in flavor, juicier, and mostly red instead of pale yellowish green in flesh color.
The present plum variety is characterized by a large size, vigorous, hardy, and usually productive tree. Being self-unfruitful, the present variety requires cross pollinization from another plum that blooms during the mid to late season, such as xe2x80x98Blackamberxe2x80x99 (unpatented) or xe2x80x98Angelenoxe2x80x99 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 2,747). The present variety""s abundance of blossoms and pollen entices strong bee activity to facilitate pollination. The fruit matures under the ecological conditions described during early September, with first picking on Sep. 7, 2002. The fruit is uniformly large in size, globose to slightly oblate in shape, blackish red in skin color, mostly red in flesh color, clingstone in type, very firm and crisp in texture, and very good in flavor.
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