Stunning plum-shaped, 2–4 oz pink fruits streaked and splashed with deep indigo-blue anthocyanin shoulders (the same healthy antioxidants found in blueberries). The blue becomes dramatically darker and more extensive with direct sun exposure.
 
Production is absolutely obscene— trusses loaded from top to bottom all season long. Flavor is outstanding: intensely sweet with bright, lively acid and real complexity. One of the best-tasting antho-plum cherries you’ll ever grow.
 
Compact but vigorous indeterminate plants thrive in large containers (5-gallon minimum) with a sturdy cage, or give them room in the garden and watch them bury the trellis.
 
Technically, every bite counts as two servings of fruit.  

HISTORY: Bred by Mark McCaslin of Frogsleap Farm from an intentional 2009 cross of the anthocyanin-expressing P20/OSU Blue (Oregon State University’s wild-derived blue-fruited line carrying the Aft and atv genes) × the striped brown variety Black and Brown Boar.
 
Mark grew out the F2 in 2010 (thanks to a friend in Hawaii who overwintered seed) and selected two standout plants from ~200. One displayed dramatic anthocyanin striping on purple-brown fruit. He stabilized it through the F3 generation and in 2011 shared seed with Dean Slater (who nicknamed it “Purple Dragon”) and a few other breeders.
 
All current seed traces back to that small 2011 distribution. Michigan Heirlooms received original seed directly from Dean Slater in 2012 and has grown and maintained it ever since — making this the exclusive Michigan Heirlooms strain of Purple Dragon.
 
Sold as a single plant in a 3.5" pot.