The name commonly used for this hybrid is plumcot, which comes from the words Plum and Apricot.
This species whose name is “Prunus Desycarpa” is a hybrid derived from a natural crossing between the prunus armeniaca Apricot and the mirabolano prunus cerasifera plum. It presents intermediate characteristics of both the parents and it tolerates winter cold. Its fruits ripen in the country of Vada from 1st to 15th June, but for fruiting it needs being pollinated from the apricot or from the mirabolano plum.
Some scientists believe that these plants are composed by hybrid species deriving from a natural crossing between the Prunus armerica (the traditional apricot) and the Prunus cerasifera (the mirabolano plum). Owing to its characteristics, the mirabolano is used in the nursery field as graft-bearer for the apricot, for the plum and sometimes for the peach-tree too.

THE AVAILABLE VARIETIES

The varieties of Biricoccolo (with very similar fruits in form and colour) that are available in Italy are two and precisely:
“Grossa precoce”: it’s cultivated near Bologna. The fruit is of medium size (30-40 g) with a thick peel and its colour is yellow and red. The pulp - when the fruit is fully ripe – is yellow and intensely red-veined, of sweet taste, agreeable and perfumed. The harvest must be done from 20th June to 15th July in the North and from 1st to 20th June in the Centre.
Pruna cresammola: it is the plumcot of the vesuvian area. The fruit has thick peel, is of medium-little size (23-30 g), yellow and red. The pulp is yellow and intensely red-veined, tender, juicy, sweet and aromatic at full ripeness. The ripening is in sequence: it begins around the middle of June or also before with exposition to the South and continues till the 25th / 30th of the same month

Where it comes from – Peculiarities – History – Studies

The plumcot was mentioned for the first time in Europe by the French abates Nolin and Blavet in 1755 with the name of “violet apricot”. Later other authors mentioned this species with the name of “black apricot”, “Pope’s apricot” and “plum-apricot”. The origin of the species is uncertain and the plant doesn’t exist at wild state. (A thorough study on the plumcot taking 15 years was made in the 30es and 40es by the late Prof. Angelo Manaresi, who was at that time holder of the chair at the Institute of arboreal cultivation of the University of Bologna. This study has permitted to describe the plant pointing out its qualities and defects and the cultivation possibilities.) Being a hybrid derived from an occasional and natural crossing between the apricot and the mirabolano plum, it is present in all the areas in which this species are spread. The species is cultivated in western China and in central-southern Asia.
This fruit had already been studied by Le Berriays, who had called it “Pope’s apricot”, and by Fillassier, who called it “apricot plum”. In 1791 Ehrhart consider it as a particularly specified entity called prunus dasycarpa, giving to it the synonym of “black apricot” (Maranesi, 1950). Among the first genetists who get interested in this hybrid there was Burbank, who selected in 1911 a hybrid called “Apex plumcot”. Today public and private institutes have obtained several hybrids, which can be divided in three types.