Cornus, 'Vavilovets' cornelian cherry

Cornus mas 'Vavilovets'  This cultivar was imported from Ukraine into the US about a decade ago. It is a relatively new cultivar selected for it's large and tasty oblong fruit. Rated one of the top cultivars by cornelian cherry expert Svitlana Klimenko of the National Botanical Gardens of the Ukraine.  This cultivar, which is also know as 'Vavilov' is named after the famed Soviet plant scientist Nikolai Vavilov. His research in the 1920s and 1930s laid the foundation for the modern understanding of how staple cereal crops were first domesticated from their wild progenitors. The seed he collected during these research expeditions, forms the basis of the collection at the Institute of Plant Industry in St. Petersburg. Tragically, like so many other innocents, Vavilov became a victim of the Stalin's paranoia terror. Tasked with improving crop yields, Vavilov clashed with the anti-Mendelian pseudo-scientific theories advanced by Trofim Lysenko, who was able to promise great improvements in