Cultivar 90: Kota

Kota is a fragrant hybrid plum in the Hansen group, introduced in 1939.[S1] Hansen's bulletin places it with Kaga, Toka, and Hanska. It describes Kota as a sister selection that was worth introducing because its fruit averaged larger.[S1] A later prairie orchard note repeats that relationship and also says it was larger than its sister cultivars.[S2]

The fruit is described as about 1 3/8 inches across and 1 1/2 inches deep, oblate, and vivid dark red with a white bloom and large distinct yellow dots.[S1] The flesh is described as very firm, richly fragrant, and delicious.[S1] These traits fit the broader fragrant plum group, which Hansen described as combining native plum hardiness with the firm, perfumed flesh and cooked apricot-like flavor inherited from the Chinese apricot-plum parent.[S1]

Kota was productive in trial plantings and made what Hansen called a splendid record at the State Orchard at Sioux Falls.[S1] The same bulletin says the fragrant plum trees had the hardy character of Prunus americana and budded or grafted well on native plum seedlings.[S1] This places Kota clearly in northern hardy plum breeding, though the surviving notes here are brief.

In lineage terms, Kota belongs to the fragrant plum series produced from crosses between the native plum, Prunus americana, and the Chinese apricot-plum, Prunus simonii.[S1] Its close connection to Kaga, Toka, and Hanska matters because those named sisters mark a distinct breeding effort to enlarge and improve hardy prairie plums without losing adaptation.[S1][S2]

Summary source basis

• S1: New Hardy Fruits for the Northwest
• S2: TreeFruitsGrownInPrairieOrchards WRLeslie 1946 HQ

This summary currently draws chiefly from New Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, with 1 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“The flesh is described as very firm, richly fragrant, and delicious, with many large yellow dots as a distinguishing characteristic.”
— ^[1]

“Kota is another of the 16 original seedlings considered worthy of introduction because of its larger size.”
— ^[1]

“Listed in the table of contents under 'Fragrant Plums.'”
— ^[1]

“The fruit is oblate with a slightly sunken apex.”
— ^[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

• Fruit 1 % inches across, 1 Yz inches deep, a vivid dark red with large distinct yellow dots and white bloom; oblate, with slightly sunken apexNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p25
• Asister to Kaga, Toka, and Hanska, but the fruit averages largerNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p25
• HANSEN PLUMS FOR ALL ZONES | Fragrant Hybrids | other | KotaSouth Dakota Fruit Garden (visual sample pages 9-11), p1
• HANSEN PLUMS FOR ALL ZONES | Fragrant Hybrids | other | KotaSouth Dakota Fruit Garden (visual sample pages 9-11), p1

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context