World Beater was grown from a seed of a plum found near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1838, by J. H. Tinsley and planted in Lincoln County, Kentucky. About ten years later trees of the variety were taken to Clay County, Missouri, and were further propagated but the variety remained practically unknown until the fall of 1890 when it was introduced by Stark Brothers of Missouri.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open and flat-topped, hardy where the peach can be grown, productive; branches rough and shaggy, somewhat thorny, dark ash-gray, with numerous, large lenticels; branchlets medium to above in thickness and length, twiggy, with internodes of average length, green changing to dark chestnut-red, glossy, glabrous, with few, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds very small and short, obtuse, plump, appressed.
Leaves folded upward, broadly lanceolate, peach-like, one and three-quarters inches wide, four and one-half inches long, thin; upper surface smooth, glossy, with a shallow groove on the midrib; lower surface pubescent on the midrib and larger veins; apex acuminate, base abrupt, margin serrate, glandular; petiole one inch long, slender, tinged red, pubescent on one side, with from two to six small, globose, brownish glands scattered on the stalk or base of the leaf.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the leaves, three-quarters inch across, white, with a disagreeable odor; borne in clusters from lateral buds, in twos, threes or fours; pedicels three-quarters inch long, very slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acuminate, slightly pubescent towards the base of the inner surface, serrate and with reddish glands, erect; petals ovate, crenate, fringed, with pubescent claws of medium width; anthers yellowish; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit very late, season short; one inch by seven-eighths inch in size, roundish-ovate or oval, not compressed, halves equal; cavity narrow, shallow, rather abrupt; suture a line; apex pointed; color carmine, bloomless; dots medium in number, small, whitish or sometimes reddish, somewhat conspicuous; stem slender, medium to above in length, glabrous, not adhering to the fruit; skin thick, tough, astringent, adhering slightly; flesh light yellow, juicy, coarse, melting near the skin but firmer and fibrous next the pit, sweet except near the center, strongly aromatic; fair to good; stone often tinged red, adhering, three-quarters inch by three-eighths inch in size, oval, turgid, angular, pointed at the base and apex, roughish; ventral suture wide, blunt, ridged; dorsal suture acute or with an indistinct, shallow groove.
WYANT
Prunus americana
1. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 327. 1885. 2. Ibid. 85. 1890. 3. Cornell Sta. Bul. 38:46. 1892. 4. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 448. 1893. 5. Ia. Sta. Bul. 31:345. 1895. 6. Kan. Sta. Bul. 73:192. 1897. 7. Wis. Sta. Bul. 63:24, 65 fig. 32, 66. 1897. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 24. 1897. 9. Colo. Sta. Bul. 50:47. 1898. 10. Ia. Sta. Bul. 46:292. 1900. 11. Waugh Plum Cult. 167 fig., 168. 1901. 12. Can. Exp. Farm Bul. 43:32. 1903. 13. Ga. Sta. Bul. 67:284, 285 fig. 1904. 14. S. Dak. Sta. Bul. 93:44, 49 fig. 1905.
Wyant is one of the standard Americana plums, ranking well with the best of them in both fruit and tree-characters. While it is almost beyond question a true Americana (from its history it could hardly be otherwise,) it has a number of characters that mark it as a departure from the usual type of Prunus americana. The calyx-tube is bright red, a character found only in a few other varieties of this species; the stamens are much longer than is usual in the species and much more numerous; the pistils are often defective; the flowers are borne in greater profusion; the plums do not have the distinctive Americana taste; the flesh is less juicy than usual; the skin is free and the stones are nearly free and have pitted surfaces. Some of these characters are so valuable in a native plum that Wyant may well be used to breed from. The trees from which the description here given was made came from C. L. Watrous, Des Moines, Iowa, and to the best of our belief are true to name.
This variety, according to a letter from J. E. Wyant, Shellsburg, Iowa, was found by J. B. Wyant of Janesville, Iowa, while hunting for wild plums in 1866 on the Cedar River near his home. The following year he transplanted the tree to his yard. About 1874, J. E. Wyant told R. Royce of Shellsburg, Iowa, proprietor of the Benton County Nursery, of this tree. Royce secured cuttings from the original tree and began propagating the plum. Fruits were sent to Professor J. L. Budd, Ames, Iowa, who named it Wyant. The variety was introduced by Mr. Royce and was disseminated by him and by Professor Budd. In 1897 it was added to the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society.