Weshart Tangerine

Webber’s 1905 account treats Weshart as one of two named seedlings from a Dancy tangerine seed-parent × Parson Brown sweet-orange pollen-parent series; it says the seedlings lacked fruit and foliage characters indicating orange parentage, but does not establish Weshart’s genotype. The 1904 Yearbook account says Weshart was named for W. S. Hart of Hawks Park, Florida, in recognition of his assistance with the experiments, and reports that Weshart and Trimble were grown and fruited under his supervision.^⁠[2]⁠[3]

The 1904 account describes Weshart fruit as compressed-spherical, deep orange-red, smooth and glossy, about 2½–3 5/16 inches in diameter and 2¼–2⅞ inches high, with mainly 10 segments and 9–15 seeds. It calls the season very early for a tangerine and describes the tree as vigorous and prolific.^⁠[2]

UCR’s retrospective account says Weshart and Trimble are regarded as nucellar seedlings of Dancy rather than new varieties, despite the earlier Dancy × Parson Brown cross reports. Webber’s 1905 account discusses Weshart among seedlings from that cross series but notes they lacked fruit and foliage characters indicating orange parentage. Neither account establishes Weshart’s genotype.^⁠[1]⁠[3]

Bitters summarizes a 1965 nonirrigated Brazil rootstock trial using 77 tristeza-tolerant stocks with nucellar Bara, Valencia Late, Dancy, and Eureka scions. Weshart appears in the low drought-resistance rootstock category, but the passage identifies no Weshart accession or measured threshold. This is a historical rootstock classification, not a measured field-tolerance rating for a Weshart fruiting tree.^⁠[4]