Joe,

I'm glad you got that scionwood to take -- great job! With luck, you may even get some fruit from those grafts this year.

A few additional comments:

The selections by George Emerich were given the above designations by one of our local CRFG members who originally brought the scions up from San Diego county, not George. So those names are really only used by Bay Area local hobbyists who have exchanged scionwood, and you won't find them by "Googling". (Well, "Google" will probably pick up *this* thread now, but that would be all.)

Similarly, "Late Lomeli" was also just randomly given that name by the gentleman I mentioned above -- someone sent him wood from the Conejo Park planting, and he or she labelled the scions as the somewhat well-known variety "Lomeli". Well, the clone definitely wasn't "Lomeli", but it was somewhat late-bearing, so our local member just decided to call it "Late Lomeli". It is *not* actually a seedling of "Lomeli", so the name may not be the best!

Capulin cherries are fun to play around with, but they are certainly something of a "not ready for prime time" fruit -- they could be sweeter, the flesh/pit ratio could be better, and those resinous flavor notes could be less prominent. (Although some of the above selections are significantly less resinous than random seedlings.) This fruit has never been the subject of a formal breeding program, to the best of my knowledge, so there is the potential for great improvement.

Although the California rare-fruit community refers to this fruit as Prunus salicifolia, many authorities (including the USDA, I think) classify it as Prunus serotina var. salicifolia; in other words as a Mexican/Central American subspecies of the North American black cherry.

I've seen pictures of black cherries, and their bark, leaves, flowers, and fruit look identical or nearly identical to capulin cherries -- except that capulin cherry fruits are substantially larger than black cherries. (And taste far better, from what I've read; although I will say that some people really dislike the low-level resinous overtones in capulins, and refuse to eat them.)

My guess would be that capulins would be graft-compatible with any number of North American raceme cherries: black cherries, chokecherries, etc. However, capulins are only hardy down to the low 20s F, so any capulin grafts in colder climates would freeze and die during the winter.

Thanks for the additional info Ashok! the young Capulin seedlings you gave me has survived the Arctic blast with their leaves intact. With such tender shoots to survive the prolonged wayward cold spell, I believe the seedlings from your tree can survive down to 16 deg F. For sure, the mature trees will be able to shake that.

If you can eat raw to partially ripe tropical guavas without a problem, you will love Capulin cherries.

I will be grafting the extra capulin scionwood to various prunus species and see what happens.

Sometimes grafting a more tropical selection onto a more temperate rootstock confers a greater dormancy to the scion, as in the case of persimmon and citrus on hardier relatives. This and variability may explain the reports of zero degree hardiness for Capulin. The seedling Capulin here behave nearly identically to native black cherry as far as leaf damage goes and show no frozen twigs at 14 degrees all night long on successive nights. They are from crfg seeds and the quality is poor. I would like to get some budwood of these improved varieties if possible. I will pay for shipping of course.

Anybody want to sell me a couple named cultivars?