Description
San Pedro (syns. San Pedro White, White San Pedro, Apple, Saint Peter). Described by West (1882), Eisen (1885, 1896, 1897, 1901), Fancher Creek Nursery catalogue, Fresno (1885-1886), Colby (1894), California Nursery catalogue, Niles, (1889-1890), Starnes (1903, 1907, the second with Monroe, both with illustrations), Roeding (1914), and Condit (1921b, 1947). See also Condit (1941a, fig. 2, 1).
The identity and synonymy of San Pedro with a European variety have not been established. According to Eisen (1901, p.65), ''F. Pohndorff, then of Niles or vicinity, imported the White San Pedro under the name of Breba from Spain and distributed it in this country in 1883 or 1884.'' On the other hand, Milco stated in 1884 that he had imported the San Pedro from Dalmatia about eleven years previously. It is not the same as San Piero, described by Gallesio, nor San Pietro, both of which are treated elsewhere in this monograph.
Since about 1885, San Pedro has been widely distributed in California, but nowhere has it achieved commercial importance, despite the advertisement of one California nursery that ''as a table fig this one is unsurpassed, and will exclude all others on the market.'' It was grown and tested at the California Experiment Stations, and Colby reported analyses of the fruit grown at Fresno in 1893. The tree that grew at Parlier, Fresno County, for many years, and that was erroneously reported in the American Fruit Grower, November, 1929, as the largest fig tree in America, was of this variety; not of the Adriatic, as stated (plate 5). Trees of San Pedro have been fruiting in the collection at Riverside since 1930, and the following account is based on the behavior of this variety during the intervening years.
The tree is rather open, with drooping branches; terminal buds are green. Leaves variable in size and lobing, mostly 3- or 5-lobed; surface somewhat glossy; upper sinuses of medium depth and width, lower very shallow, broad; base shallowly subcordate to truncate; margins coarsely and shallowly crenate.
Breba crop good; figs above medium to large, turbinate, with prominent, thick neck, or sometimes spherical without neck; average weight 78 grams; stalk short; ribs fairly prominent; white flecks variable, conspicuous on some specimens, few on others; eye large, scales straw color, erect; surface glossy, with delicate bloom; color yellowish green; meat white; pulp amber, tinged with strawberry; flavor moderately rich; quality fair to good. (Plate 17, A.)
Second-crop figs medium to large, up to 2 inches in diameter and about the same in length, spherical or oblate, with short stalk; neck variable, present and prominent, or missing; average weight 58 grams; ribs broad, prominent; eye large, open, but internally closed by scales; surface glossy; bloom fairly heavy; white flecks large, scattered, conspicuous; skin thick, rubbery in texture; color green to yellowish green; meat white, thick; pulp strawberry; seeds fertile, numerous; texture gelatinous; flavor insipid, flat; quality fair to poor. Fruit inclined to split when nearing full maturity. Of little value, either fresh or dried. (Plate 17, B.)
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