Black Tartarian (originally ''Ronald's Large Black Heart'') is an heirloom

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

. It was brought from

Circassia Circassia (; also known as Cherkessia in some sources; ady, Адыгэ Хэку, Адыгей, lit=, translit=Adıgə Xəku, Adıgey; ; ota, چرکسستان, Çerkezistan; ) was a country and a historical region in the along the northeast ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the 1700s by a man named Hugh Ronalds, and from England it was brought to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the 1800s.Foundation Plant Services Prunus Encyclopedia
/ref> The fruit of the Black Tartarian is about one inch in diameter, with a unique taste and texture, but too soft for commercial shipping."Old Southern Orchards"
/ref> It is primarily grown as a

pollinizer {{Unreferenced, date=May 2009 A pollenizer (or polleniser), sometimes pollinizer (or polliniser, see spelling differences) is a plant that provides pollen. The word '' pollinator'' is often used when ''pollenizer'' is more precise. A pollinato ...

for other cherry varieties.

Plant facts

The Black Tartarian cultivar is best suited for

USDA Zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

s 5–7. It is a very vigorous, heavy-bearing variety, but is primarily used as a pollenizer for other dark, sweet varieties of cherry.

References

Cherry cultivars {{fruit-stub