Leaves flattened, oval, two and one-half inches wide, four and one-quarter inches long, leathery, somewhat velvety; upper surface dark green, lightly pubescent, with a shallow groove on the midrib; lower surface medium green, thickly pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base abrupt; margin serrate, eglandular; petiole five-eighths inch long, green, pubescent, glandless or with one or two smallish, globose, greenish-yellow glands at the base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and five-sixteenths inches across, white, with yellow near the apex; borne on lateral buds and spurs; pedicels three-eighths inch long, thick, covered with fine pubescence, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, erect; petals broad-ovate or oval, crenate, tapering into short, broad claws; anthers yellow; filaments three-eighths inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens.
Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; one and three-quarters inches by one and five-eighths inches in size, roundish-oval, compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture shallow; apex roundish; color greenish-yellow or light yellow, with green stripes and splashes, occasionally with a faint blush on the sunny side, covered with thin bloom; dots numerous, white, inconspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem one-half inch long, covered with thick pubescence, adhering strongly to the fruit; skin thin, slightly sour, separating readily; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy, firm but tender, sweet, mild, pleasant flavor; good to very good; stone free, not filling the cavity, one inch by three-quarters inch in size, oval, turgid, roughened, somewhat blunt at the base and apex; ventral suture wide, marked by deep furrows, with a distinct but short wing; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
WAYLAND
WAYLAND
Prunus hortulana
1. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 573, Pl. 5 fig. 2. 1888. 2. Am. Gard. 10:175 fig., 243. 1889. 3. Cornell Sta. Bul. 38:51, 87. 1892. 4. Wis. Sta. Bul. 63:24, 62. 1897. 5. Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 10:99, 103. 1897. 6. Ibid. 11:281, 286 fig. 1898. 7. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 228. 1904. 8. Ga. Sta. Bul. 67:283. 1904. 9. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:258. 1905.
Wayland is of little interest to plum-growers who grow the Domestica varieties without difficulty but in the South and Middle West it is an important representative of a valuable species. The trees withstand the hot, dry weather in the region south of central Iowa and Nebraska rather better than do those of varieties of other species and its fruits are borne in such quantities and so late that this and its kindred sorts become important plums. The fruits are quite too firm of flesh, too sour and too small to be of value for dessert purposes but they are most excellent for jellies, marmalades and preserves—any of the uses to which the Damsons are commonly put. They are, too, best adapted for long-keeping and shipping of any of the native plums. Except in size, the plums are hardly surpassed in the characters that make a fruit handsome among the native plums. The trees are large, robust and hardy in central New York, usually free from attacks of insects and fungi and, with their abundant, glossy foliage, are strikingly ornamental. Wayland is of value for New York, however, when all characters are considered, only in furnishing variety, in extending the season for native plums and as an ornamental.
Wayland was found in a plum thicket on the premises of Professor H. B. Wayland, Cadiz, Kentucky. It was sent by him about 1875 to J. S. Downer and Sons, Fairview, Todd County, Kentucky, who named and introduced it. There has been much discussion as to the botanical status of this variety, various writers having put it in at least three distinct species and Waugh and Bailey have used it as the type of the Wayland group of Prunus hortulana.