Patent Application
20210161055
Botanical classification: Athyrium niponicum.
Variety denomination: ‘Crested Surf’.
The first disclosure of the claimed plant, in the form of a sale, was made by Walters Gardens, Inc. on Jul. 8, 2019. Plants for this sale were obtained from the inventor. Prior to this sale, on Dec. 1, 2018, the plant was first advertised on a website managed by Walters Gardens, Inc. The plant was also listed in the “Walters Gardens 19-20 Catalog’ published and released on May 29, 2019. Walters Gardens, Inc. obtained the new plant and all information about the new plant directly from the inventor. No plants of Athyrium ‘Crested Surf’ have been sold, in this country or anywhere in the world, nor has any disclosure of the new plant been made, more than one year prior the filing date of this application, and such sale or disclosure within one year was either derived directly or indirectly from the inventor.
The present invention relates to the new and distinct Athyrium niponicum given the cultivar name ‘Crested Surf’ and developed by the inventor in a greenhouse at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA. Through trials at the same nursery the plant was referred to by the code 09-124-01. The new plant has been successfully asexually propagated initially by division in 2015 followed by shoot tip tissue culture at the same nursery in Zeeland, Mich. Both these asexual propagation systems has been found to produce stable and identical plants that maintain all the unique characteristics of the original plant in successive generations.
Athyrium ‘Crested Surf’ differs from its parents as well as all other Athyrium known to the applicant. The present invention has not been evaluated under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary with changes to the growing conditions such as light intensity or duration, nutrient availability, water availability, etc. without any change to the genotype. The most similar known Athyrium cultivars known to the inventor are: Athyrium hybrid ‘Ocean's Fury’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,126, Athyrium filix-femina ‘Dre's Dagger’ (not patented), Athyrium niponicum ‘Joy Ride’ (not patented), Athyrium niponicum ‘Thrill Seeker’ (not patented) and Athyrium niponicum ‘Apple Court’ (not patented). ‘Ocean's Fury’ has a taller and narrower habit, less creating branching, smaller pinnules and with less reddish stems. ‘Dre's Dagger’ has finer textured foliage, narrower leaf blades, paler green leaf color without the wine-colored petiole and pinna and pinnule midribs, and without the light green variegation near the middle of the pinna and pinnules. ‘Joy Ride’ has more compact habit, more tasseled with less red on the stems. ‘Thrill Seeker’ has more cresting with less red in the stems and less upright habit. ‘Apple Court’ has less vigor and less upright with pinnae that are broader. The female and male parent was shorter than ‘Crested Surf’.
The new plant, ‘Crested Surf’, is unique from all ferns known to the inventor by the following combined traits:
1. Stiff upright habit;
2. Foliage serrate, finely-textured, broadly-lanceolate, bipinnately compound with alternating deep green and light green portions of the pinnae and pinnules;
3. Pinnae and pinnules with compound crested apices;
4. Petioles and midribs with wine coloration.
The color drawings illustrate the overall characteristics of the new plant and demonstrate the overall appearance of the new plant including the unique traits as a three-year-old plant growing in a shaded trial garden in Zeeland, Mich. with supplemental water and fertilizer as needed. The colors are as true as reasonably possible given the technology available. The colors are as accurate as reasonably possible with color reproductions. Ambient light, spectrum, temperature, source, duration and direction may cause minor variation in appearance.
The following detailed description is based on a three-year-old plant growing in a shaded trial garden in Zeeland, Mich., USA. Environmental conditions for the growing season daytime temperatures range between 12-30° C., and night temperatures range between 6-19° C. Except for ordinary dictionary color usage, color references are according to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart, 2015 edition.
