Cultivar 79: Wotanda

Wotanda is a wild crabapple selection that Hansen described in 1939 from a cross listed as Nevis wild crab x Northwestern Greening apple.[S1] [S2] Prairie Canada references summarize it as yellowish green fruit that keeps well, but Hansen's earlier description gives a fuller picture: a large fruited crab for its class, selected as the largest of several seedlings from the same parentage.[S1] [S2]

Hansen placed Wotanda at Nevis, Minnesota, in his work on taming the American wild crabapple.[S1] The name belongs to that older northern breeding context, which aimed to improve tiny wild crab fruit while keeping hardiness and strong storage life.[S1]

The fruit is described as very regular, oblate, unctuous, and yellowish green, about 2 1/2 by 2 inches, with one specimen weighing a little over four ounces.[S1] Hansen also noted very small, closed calyx segments.[S1] The flavor is described as mild for cooking, not sharp or highly aromatic.[S1]

Its standout trait is keeping quality. Hansen called it an "all the year keeper," and the later Prairie Canadian reference also says it keeps well.[S1] [S2] This suggests Wotanda was valued less as a quick dessert apple and more as a durable kitchen and storage fruit, especially because the same source says it was an improvement over the Nevis wild crab when cooked.[S1]

The tree is noted as productive.[S1] These sources do not give a direct zone rating, but its Minnesota origin and later inclusion in Prairie Canadian apple references place it in a northern hardiness context.[S1] [S2] Within the archive, Wotanda matters as one of Hansen's attempts to get larger, more useful fruit from wild crabapple breeding while preserving the keeping quality that made such material valuable in cold regions.[S1]

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

“The largest of several seedlings of the same pedigree.”
— ^[1]

“The preceding continued sentence states it was a great improvement, when cooked, over the Nevis wild crab, with season evidently all winter and spring.”
— ^[1]

“Heavy for its size, one fruit weighing a little over four ounces.”
— ^[1]

“Very regular, oblate, unctuous, yellowish green.”
— ^[1]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• Wild crab x Northwestern Greening apple.
• Nevis x Northwest Greening.
• The largest of several seedlings of the same pedigree

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• International or Three-Species Apples The name International might be applied to many of the hybrid apples now coming into bearing because they combine the apples of three continents : Pyrus Ioensis of North America, Pyrus malus of Europe, and Pyrus baccata of AsiaNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p21
• The plan is to combine the long winter-keeping of the American wild crab with the large good quality fruit of the standard cultivated apple and the winter hardiness of the Siberian crabNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p21
• Fruit an all the year keeper; heavy for its size, one fruit weighing a little over four ouncesNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p21
• The varieties have the group named Trio, indicating three-speciesNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p21

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context