Cultivar 63: Waziya

Waziya is a wild crabapple x apple hybrid from N. E. Hansen's hardy fruit work. A 1938 source records it as a cross of the Nevis wild crab of Minnesota with Northwestern Greening. [S1] [S2] Hansen placed it among the Nevis hybrids and described it as perhaps the largest and best of that group. [S1]

Sources describe the fruit as oblate, green, and about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches across. A later Prairie Canada reference gives the size as about 5.5 cm. [S1] [S2] Hansen called it unctuous and fragrant like the wild crab. [S1] Its flavor was sharp acid, with less of the wild crab's astringent edge. [S1] The later prairie reference is blunter and calls it poor for cooking. [S2] Hansen also called it an all year keeper, which was unusual among hardy crabapple derived fruits of its era. [S1]

Waziya belongs to a small family of related Hansen selections. Hansen identified it as a sister of Wecota and Wetonka. [S1] This places it in the line of named wild crabapple hybrids he was developing for severe northern conditions, rather than as a standard dessert apple. [S1] [S2]

The name has its own story. Hansen wrote that Waziya, in early Indian usage, was the spirit of the blizzard and the cool breezes, with home in Wind Cave in the Black Hills. [S1] The name fits the cultivar's place in a breeding program aimed at hardy fruit for the northern plains. [S1]

Hardiness is implied by its place in Hansen's northern breeding work and by the later Prairie Canada listing, which assigns it the code ST, though that code is not expanded on the cited page. [S1] [S2] The sources used here do not give a plain zone rating.

Summary source basis

• S1: New Hardy Fruits for the Northwest
• S2: Edible Apples in Prairie Canada

This summary currently draws chiefly from New Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, with 1 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“Waziya is described as sister to Wecota and Wetonka.”
— ^[1]

“Listed in the table of contents under "TAMING THE AMERICAN WILD CRABAPPLE" with entry page 18.”
— ^[1]

“The fruit is unctuous and fragrant like the wild crab.”
— ^[1]

“The sharp acid fruit does not cook up but has much less wild crab acerbity.”
— ^[1]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• Waziya is described as a Nevis wild crab x Northwestern Greening apple cross.
• Listed as Nevis x Northwestern Greening.
• Pedigree given as Nevis x Northwestern Greening.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• Perhaps the largest and best of the Nevis hybrids; fruit oblate, 2 Ya x 2 Y4 inches, green, unctuous, and fragrant like the wild crabNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p19
• Waziya (Nevis X Northwestern Greening) Hansen (1938) STEdible Apples in Prairie Canada, p72
• Waziya of the early Indians was the spirit of the blizzard as well as of the cool breezesNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p19
• The sharp acid fruit does not cook up but has much less wild crab acerbityNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p19

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context