Selected from seedlings of free-pollinated selected forms of steppe cherry. Originator — Central Siberian Botanical Garden, SB RAS. Authors: V.S. Simagin, M.N. Salamatov, V.P. Belousova. Introduced into the State Register in 2004 for the West Siberian region.
A small shrub, 1–1.5 m tall, dense, heavily branched. Bark of the trunk is smooth, dark brown. Growing shoots are slightly curved, greenish-brown, light gray the following year, with few lenticels, yellowish-gray, small. Vegetative buds are oval-shaped with a pointed apex; generative buds are round-oval, moderately set back from the shoot. Leaves are inversely egg-shaped, 4.5 x 2 cm, dark green; apex gradually pointed, base wedge-shaped, serrated and wavy; blade folded like a boat, slightly curved, smooth, shiny, not pubescent underneath; glands at the base of the blade, small, 2–3 per blade; petiole 1.5 cm long, medium thickness, weakly pigmented. Flowers in umbels, 3–4 per umbel, 22 mm in diameter, corolla bowl-shaped, petals nearly closed, white; stigma slightly above stamens; calyx cup-shaped, calyx lobes round-triangular, without teeth; stamens 12 mm long, pistil 14 mm long. Flowers mainly bloom on one-year-old shoots.
Fruit weighing 2.2–2.5 g, 16 mm high, 17 mm wide, 16 mm thick; round, flattened at the seam, small and wide depression, rounded apex; skin color dark red in sun, light yellow in shade; flesh color pink, juice pale pink; flesh tender and juicy; pedicel 2.5 cm long, thin; stone round, 0.17–0.19 g, about 9% of fruit mass, apex sharply pointed, base rounded, good detachment from flesh.
Fruits attractive in appearance, uniform; flesh juicy. Flavor sour-sweet with astringency, acceptable. Fruits contain 12.5% dry matter, 8.5% sugars, 1.4% free acids, 13 mg/100g ascorbic acid. Fruit detachment is medium. Suitable for harvesting with berry harvesters. Fruits are weakly resistant to cracking. Cultivar for technical use. Suitable for producing high-quality jam, compote, and juice.
Flowering early, in Novosibirsk at the beginning of the third decade of May; ripening medium-early — after July 20, uniform; enters fruiting at 3–4 years after planting. Propagated by green cuttings and suckers; lifespan of the trunk 8–9 years. Fruit-bearing regular and abundant. Yield 3–5 kg per bush; at planting distance 3 x 1.5 m yields 65–110 ц/ha. Self-sterile, well pollinated by 'Early Steppe' and other simultaneously blooming forms of steppe cherry.
Mature wood, young shoots, and generative buds are highly resistant to winter frosts; flowers moderately resistant to spring frosts. High drought tolerance, moderate heat tolerance. Weakly resistant to coccomycosis, moderately resistant to moniliosis and clasterosporiosis, resistant to witch’s broom, resistance to bacterial, viral, and mycoplasma diseases not studied. Weakly affected by gummosis and calcium chlorosis. Moderately damaged by cherry aphid, cherry sawfly, cherry and bird cherry slugs, plum fruit fly; resistance to other pests not studied. Suitable for intensive orchards.
Advantages of the cultivar: high winter hardiness and yield, suitability of fruits for various processing.
Disadvantages of the cultivar: small fruits of mediocre flavor, self-sterility, insufficient resistance to coccomycosis and clasterosporiosis.
