Green Gage Plum was the most intensively documented variety of the 170 fruit varieties that Jefferson grew at Monticello. On March 31, 1773, Jefferson recorded sending slips of it to Monticello along with eleven other species of trees. In 1783, he planted twenty-one of these trees in the South Orchard. The Green Gage has long been a highly prized fruit, for its hardiness -- it was one of the few of Jefferson's transplanted European fruits that survived well -- and for its juicy flesh and candy-sweet flavor.

Adapted from The Fruit and Fruit Trees of Monticello by Peter J. Hatch.