Cultivar name: Melgar 2
Synonyms: Romãzeira Preta (Sour, blue and white aril)
Origin: Unknown. Was gifted to Victor's dad as a small tree by a family friend that travels. They have lost touch with the friend.
Plant ID: NA
USDA ID: NA
Fruit Size: Usually small to medium, 3-4 inches inches in diameter.
Hull color: Purple almost black
Aril size: Medium
Aril color: Transparent dark blue, with a grayish color tone, see explanation below
Seed hardness: Hard
Flavor profile: Fruit are not sweet, are tart!
Hardiness: Dies back to the ground at 24 degrees Fahrenheit outdoors, totally dies at 21 degrees Fahrenheit outdoors, indoors it can handle colder, not sure how much colder yet.
Notes:
'Melgar 2' is the Melgar cultivator with the smaller and not sweet fruit. The bark is gray/greenish.
It's new stem growth is burgundy in some parts, and in other parts new growth is the same color as beet green stems, adding a new and rare color combination. New growth seems strong and thick much of the length, yet at the end often they're super thin and droopy, at the droopy part they look like the color a seedling is if it never got any light.
The original tree grew very grew fast, the original tree is/was, planted in heavy, hard, nasty clay soil, at 7 years old the tree was more than double the size of Melgar 1, at 17 feet in height.
The original 'Melgar 2', the original Melgar 2 bush is still at 'the house of Victor's parents', and was planted in about 2012. 2020 was about 8 years after it was planted.
In a warm enough climate on a warmer year it starts to bloom by late February and then again in early November.
Fruit is usually small to medium '3-4 inches' in diameter. The ripe fruit appears mid to end of October, beginning of November and the November blooms drops because of the cold. Some years the ripe fruit can appear as early as late September.
Fruit skin color changes from bright darkish purple to an almost dull purple that is almost black as it ripens. Peel zest can be taken from 1 week old pomegranate fruit, not ripe yet. Of course that means that the fruit will stop ripening and you'd not be able to consume the inside.
Within two weeks after blooming you see the fruit start to develop and develop rapidly. Apparently it takes about 34 weeks (about 8 months) for it's fruit to ripen, which is months longer than most pomegranate varieties take to go from flower to ripe fruit.
It's fruit flesh and it's juice are not sweet, they are tart, Victor's family uses the peel for tea.
The color of the arils is like blueberries/billberries would be if they were transparent, the blue is a transparent dark blue, with a grayish color tone to it, with no purple when exposed to a cool enough climate, yet if the winter is very mild for at least 2 weeks straight then the transparent blue color of the arils could have a purplish tone to it, such a warm period can turn 50% of the arils 'white', such a warm period is like 'central Portugal's normal' for many years, how purple can very.
This cultivator starts blooming the flowers 4 weeks sooner than most varieties, flowers look like the average pomegranate flowers and the fruit shape changes fast as the fruit ripens.
It was gifted as a little tree to Victor's dad for his family, by a family friend that travels a lot, the cultivator originates from Portugal.
I used to have Melgar-2, and I got rid of it due to it being a sour cultivator.
There is another Portuguese cultivator that sounds like this cultivator, yet it's fruit is sweet, and it's fruit is larger!
Here is a recent forum thread for the 'Melgar' cultivators https://permies.com/t/142290/Black-pomegranate