The Secret of the Black Apricot

Nature's alchemist standing between two fruit worlds

Nature is the finest breeder of all, and every so often, in its vast laboratory, it produces something that has puzzled scientists and growers for centuries. Picture a fruit that looks, at first glance, like a dark, purple plum, yet surprises your fingertips with a soft velvety fuzz and, once bitten into, unfolds a distinctive sweet-tart flavour with an unmistakable apricot aroma. That is exactly the botanical curiosity known as the black apricot – Prunus x dasycarpa. This rare interspecific cross combines the best of two different fruit species and represents not just a culinary curiosity, but above all an invaluable genetic treasure for the future of fruit growing.

The black apricot (Prunus x dasycarpa Ehrh.) is a spontaneous interspecific hybrid of the common apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) and the myrobalan, or cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera Ehrh.). It was first scientifically described by Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart in 1791. Today it is maintained and propagated exclusively by grafting – no wild populations of this species are known to exist.

2n = 16
chromosome number
2.5–4 m
tree height
25–40 g
fruit weight
38%
pollen fertility

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Origin and Taxonomic Classification: A Child of Chance

In the scientific literature the black apricot also appears under several synonyms, including Armeniaca atropurpurea Loisel., Armeniaca dasycarpa (Ehrh.) Borkh., Armeniaca fusca Turpin & Poit., and Prunus nigra Desf. (Zaurov et al., 2013). Its transitional traits between plum and apricot were later described in detail by Duhamel in 1812 (Akopian et al., 2024).

The prominent Russian pomologist Kostina (1936) suggested that this hybrid may have arisen independently in several locations – western China, Central Asia, Iran, and parts of Western Asia. This spontaneous crossing was likely favoured by the joint cultivation of both parent species in these regions and their overlapping flowering periods (Akopian et al., 2024).

Interestingly, the black apricot is known exclusively from cultivated plantings. There is no evidence of any wild or naturalised populations of this species. Today it can be found in Central Asia, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, in Balochistan in Pakistan, in China's Xinjiang province, as well as in Armenia and parts of Eastern Europe (Zaurov et al., 2013; Akopian et al., 2024).

Botanical Characteristics: A Perfect Compromise

Both the morphological and biological traits of the black apricot represent a transition between its two parents. A detailed phenotypic characterisation of the species is provided by a study of the traditional Armenian cultivar 'Shlor-Tsiran' (literally "plum-apricot"), one of the best-documented forms of this rare hybrid (Akopian et al., 2024).

Habit and Leaves

The tree grows to a height of 2.5 to 4 metres and develops a spherical, rounded crown with greyish-brown scaffold branches. One-year-old shoots are numerous, hairless, and yellowish light brown in colour.

The leaf blade is ovate to elliptic-ovate (4–8 cm × 2.5–5 cm), reminiscent of the myrobalan, yet the leaf tip is abruptly and shortly pointed – a characteristic apricot trait. The upper leaf surface is yellowish-green and hairless, while the underside is finely pubescent along the veins.

Flowers and Blooming

Flowers usually appear singly and open before the leaves emerge. They are relatively small, 1.5 to 1.7 cm in diameter, with a corolla of 5 (occasionally 6 to 7) white or pale pink petals.

A key distinguishing trait is the colour of the sepals – while the myrobalan's are green, the black apricot inherited the apricot's reddish colouring of both the hypanthium and the sepals themselves. The flower stalk (pedicel) measures 7 to 12 mm, closer to the myrobalan, whereas the common apricot's pedicel is almost absent (1–2.5 mm).

Fruit and Stone

The fruit is generally smaller than that of common commercial apricots, weighing approximately 25 to 40 grams, with an almost spherical shape that is slightly flattened at the sides. The skin is firm, dark purple, covered with a waxy bloom and – a key trait inherited from the apricot – a thin velvety pubescence.

The flesh is yellow-red to medium orange, less juicy, slightly mealy, and often clings firmly to the stone (clingstone). The flavour is sweet-tart with a delicate apricot aroma. The stone is ovate, with a prominently protruding central ridge and a rough, longitudinally furrowed surface; the kernel inside is bitter.

Distinguishing Traits Compared to the Parent Species

Trait Common Apricot Black Apricot Myrobalan
Sepal colour reddish reddish green
Pedicel length 1–2.5 mm 7–12 mm longer than in apricot
Fruit pubescence pronounced fine, velvety smooth, hairless

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Reproductive Biology and Genetics: The Price of Hybridisation

Genetically, Prunus x dasycarpa is a diploid species with a somatic chromosome number of 2n = 16 (Das et al., 2011; Soldatov & Salaš, 2007). As is often the case with interspecific crosses, combining two different genomes exacts a price in terms of reproduction – pollen studies of the 'Shlor-Tsiran' cultivar revealed very low fertility and extremely low pollen germination, a consequence of meiotic abnormalities during microsporogenesis that are typical of distant hybrids within the Rosaceae family (Akopian et al., 2024).

Black apricot – pollen fertility 38%
 
Parent species – pollen fertility 80–92%
 
Black apricot – pollen germination 3.4%
 
Parent species – pollen viability 80–92%
 

Values are shown against a 0–100% scale; for the parent species (common apricot, myrobalan) the bar reflects the midpoint of the reported 80–92% range.

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Despite these reproductive obstacles, the black apricot holds enormous breeding potential. Research has shown that the species is capable of producing unreduced diploid gametes. This has allowed the black apricot to be successfully crossed with the hexaploid European plum (P. domestica ssp. domestica L., 2n = 48), giving rise to valuable tetraploid hybrids – such as the productive, large-fruited 'Jibeck' cultivar – that combine traits of both species (Soldatov & Salaš, 2007).

The name of the traditional Armenian cultivar 'Shlor-Tsiran' literally translates as "plum-apricot" – a fitting name for a fruit that truly carries the legacy of two different species within it.

Ecological Hardiness: A Tree Built for Adversity

What the black apricot lacks in fruit size, it more than makes up for in remarkable vigour and hardiness. Thanks to genes inherited from the myrobalan, it shows a high tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stress factors.

Phenologically, it is characterised by a later onset of flowering (late March to early April) and later fruit ripening (July). Thanks to its longer dormancy and later bloom, it is far better able to escape late spring frosts than common apricots, ensuring more consistent yields (Eremin et al., 2021; Akopian et al., 2024). Laboratory freezing trials confirmed that the reproductive organs of the black apricot show significantly greater frost hardiness, not only in winter but especially in early spring following brief warm spells (Eremin et al., 2021).

The black apricot also shows outstanding resistance to fungal diseases that commonly devastate stone fruit crops. It is highly resistant to brown rot (Monilia fructigena) and to shot hole disease (Clasterosporium carpophilum) (Akopian et al., 2024; Soldatov & Salaš, 2007). These traits make it not only an ideal tree for low-input home orchards, but also a valuable source of genes for breeding new, adaptable cultivars and clonal rootstocks (Eremin et al., 2021).

Conclusion

The black apricot (Prunus x dasycarpa) is living proof of how nature can merge two different species into a single harmonious, if reproductively complicated, whole. With its dark velvety skin, distinctive flavour, and above all its exceptional resistance to frost and disease, it forms a bridge between the past of traditional fruit growing and the future of modern breeding.

A note of caution: Old landraces of this species, such as the Armenian 'Shlor-Tsiran', are disappearing from the countryside today, being replaced by commercially more attractive but often more delicate cultivars (Akopian et al., 2024). At a time when climate change is bringing increasingly unpredictable weather swings and late spring frosts are destroying the harvests of common apricots, preserving and studying the gene pool of the black apricot has never been more important.

This "natural alchemist" may well hold the key to resilient, healthy fruit orchards for our future.

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