Patent Application
20150143594
Corylus avellana
‘Wepster’
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Corylus plant, botanically known as Corylus avellana, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Wepster’. Corylus avellana is in the family Betulaceae.
The new Corylus resulted from a controlled cross of female parent ‘Tonda Pacifica’ and male parent OSU 440.005 (unpatented) made in 1997 by Shawn A. Mehlenbacher and David C. Smith. ‘Tonda Pacifica’ is protected by U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,715 (issued May 8, 2012). Hybrid seeds from the cross were harvested in August 1997, stratified, and seedlings grown in the greenhouse during the summer of 1998. From this cross, a total of 182 seedling trees were planted in the field in Corvallis, Oreg., USA in October, 1998. ‘Wepster’ was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Corvallis, Oreg. It was originally assigned the designation OSU 894.030 (unpatented), which indicates the row and tree location of the original seedling. OSU 440.005 (unpatented) is from a cross of OSU 49.073×VR 8-32 (both unpatented). OSU 49.073 is from a cross of OSU 14.084בTombul Ghiaghli’ (both unpatented). OSU 14.084 is from a cross of ‘Barcelona’בDaviana’ (both unpatented). VR 8-32 is from a cross of ‘Montebello’ בGasaway’ (both unpatented). ‘Tonda Gentile delle Langhe’ (unpatented), the female parent of ‘Tonda Pacifica’, is an important cultivar in Piemonte, northern Italy. ‘Barcelona’, Oregon's most widely planted hazelnut cultivar, is known as ‘Castanyera’ (unpatented) where it originated in Catalunya, Spain. ‘Daviana’, originally from England, is the most widely planted pollinizer in ‘Barcelona’ orchards. ‘Tombul Ghiaghli’, obtained from Greece, is similar to the Turkish cultivar ‘Mincane’ (unpatented). ‘Montebello’ is widely grown under several names in Sicily. ‘Gasaway’ is the source of a single dominant gene for resistance to eastern filbert blight.
The new cultivar was asexually reproduced by rooted suckers annually for eight years (2004- 05 and 2007-12) in Corvallis, Oreg. The new cultivar was also asexually propagated by whip grafting in 2005 in Corvallis, Oreg. The unique features of this new Corylus are stable and reproduced true-to-type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of ‘Wepster’. These characteristics in combination distinguish ‘Wepster’ as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. High vigor and upright-spreading plant habit.
2. Yellowish-green developing and fully expanded leaves during the spring and summer.
3. Resistance to eastern filbert blight caused by the fungus Anisogramma anomala (Peck) E. Muller.
4. Presence of random amplified polymorphic DNA markers 152-800 and 268-580 in DNA of ‘Wepster’ amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. These two markers are linked to a dominant allele for resistance to eastern filbert blight from the cultivar Gasaway (unpatented).
5. Expression of incompatibility alleles S1 and S2 in the styles.
6. DNA fingerprints at 8 of 20 microsatellite marker loci differ from both parents, ‘Tonda Pacifica’ and OSU 440.005, and from one parent at an additional 12 marker loci. Additional DNA fingerprints of grandparent ‘Tonda Gentile delle Langhe’, standard cultivar ‘Barcelona’, eastern filbert blight resistance source ‘Gasaway’ and five cultivars released by Oregon State University hazelnut breeding program are shown in attached Table 2.
In comparisons in two replicated trials conducted in Corvallis, Oreg., plants of the new Corylus differed from plants of the Corylus avellana cultivar ‘Barcelona’ (unpatented), and other cultivars and selections of Corylus avellana known to the Inventors primarily in nut size, nut shape, kernel percentage (ratio of kernel weight to nut weight), frequency of blank nuts (nuts lacking kernels), time of pollen shed, time of nut maturity, length of the husk or involucre, and plant size.
The accompanying colored photographs illustrate the overall appearance of the new cultivar, showing the colors as true as it is reasonably possible to obtain in colored reproductions of this type. Colors in the photographs may differ slightly from the color values cited in the detailed botanical description which accurately describe the colors of the new Corylus.
The cultivar ‘Wepster’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and light intensity, without, however, any variance in genotype. The aforementioned images and following observations and measurements describe plants grown in Corvallis, Oreg. under commercial practice outdoors in the field during the fall, winter and spring. Plants used for the photographs and description were propagated by tie-off layerage and growing on their own roots, and about seven years old. In the following description, color references are made to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart, 1966 Edition, except where general terms of ordinary dictionary significance are used.
Bassil N. V., Botta R., Mehlenbacher S. A. 2005a. Microsatellite markers in hazelnut: Isolation, characterization and cross-species amplification. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 130:543-549.
Bassil N. V., Botta R., Mehlenbacher S. A. 2005b. Additional microsatellite markers of the European hazelnut. Acta Hort. 686:105-110.
Boccacci P., Akkak A., Bassil N. V., Mehlenbacher S. A., Botta R. 2005. Characterization and evaluation of microsatellite loci in European hazelnut (C. avellana) and their transferability to other Corylus species. Molec. Ecol. Notes 5:934-937.
Boccacci P., Akkak, A. and Botta, R. 2006. DNA typing and genetic relations among European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) cultivars using microsatellite markers. Genome 49:598-611.
Gökirmak T., Mehlenbacher S. A., Bassil N. V. 2009. Characterization of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana) cultivars using SSR markers. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 56:147-172.
Gürcan, K., S. A. Mehlenbacher and V. Erdogan. 2010a. Genetic diversity in hazelnut cultivars from Black Sea countries assessed using SSR markers. Plant Breeding (available on-line doi :10. 1111/j. 1439-0523. 2009. 01753. x).
Gürcan, K., S. A. Mehlenbacher, N. V. Bassil, P. Boccacci, A. Akkak and R. Botta. 2010b. New microsatellite markers for Corylus avellana from enriched libraries. Tree Genetics and Genomes (available on-line as
Gürcan, K. and S. A. Mehlenbacher. 2010. Development of microsatellite marker loci for European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) from ISSR fragments. Molecular Breeding (available on-line).
This invention was made with government support under Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58-5358-9-447 awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture. The government has certain rights in the invention.
