Patent Application
20070150992
The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of flowering dogwood, which produces fruit with seed(s) that fail to germinate after industry standard cold stratification procedures. This dogwood is botanically known as Cornus florida L. and hereinafter referred to by the following cultivar name: ‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’.
This new dogwood cultivar was discovered growing in the landscape at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn. in 1998. ‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’ is a white flowering dogwood possessing good horticultural traits including inflorescences subtended with square, overlapping white bracts. It is unique in that the seeds produced by sexual reproduction will not germinate following cold/moist stratification for four (4) months, which is the standard in the nursery industry. Asexual reproduction of ‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’ by terminal cuttings harvested at the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station in Knoxville, Tenn. and grafting of axillary buds onto seedling rootstocks have shown that the unique features of this new dogwood cultivar are stable.
The parental lineage of this cultivar is unknown: the tree may have been established naturally or purchased from a wholesale or retail nursery. ‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’ is a white flowering dogwood cultivar established in the landscape of the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, Tenn. This cultivar has been reproduced asexually by rooting cuttings and grafting axillary buds onto seedling rootstock. ‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’ has white (Green-White Group 157 D: All color classifications are based on The Royal Horticultural Society's Colour Chart) bracts. The upper pair of bracts overlap the lower bracts. The lower pair of bracts average almost 35 mm in length and 42 mm in width. The upper bracts have the dimensions of 35 mm length by 34 mm in width (n=20). The greatest overall width of the inflorescences averages approximately 85 mm (n=20). The clefts at the end of the bracts are Red-Purple (59A) when color is present and may be either flat or pointed. Flower petals are Yellow-green (151B) with Green (134B) sepals and Yellow (2C) anthers. There are about 29 flowers per inflorescence (n=20).
‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’ is white flowering dogwood, which, to the knowledge of the inventors, is the only cultivar that the seeds will not germinate after standard industry practices of cold/moist stratification for four (4) months. A summary is provided in Table 1 for 1998 through 2003 data collected at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.
aBerries were collected in mid-October, depulped and the seeds dried for two days. Seeds were placed in a moist sand/peat mixture and stored at 4 C. for four months. Germination was assessed one month after placing in the greenhouse (mid-March the following year).
bnumerator equals the number of seeds that germinated; denominator equals the number of seeds placed in cold.
DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF) was used to type ‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’. The methodology followed that of Trigiano and Caetano-Anolles (HortTechnology, 8:413-423 [1998]). Data, obtained from 144 loci generated from genomic DNA using six (6) arbitrary octomeric primers, were used to compare ‘Missy's Appalachian Morning’, the subject of his application, to other dogwoods including patented powdery mildew resistant cultivars [‘Karen's Appalachian Blush’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,165 P2), ‘Kay's Appalachian Mist’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,098 P2) and ‘Jean's Appalachian Snow’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,1099 P2)] and other commonly found cultivars in nurseries, including C. florida ‘Plena’, which also exhibits white bracts (supernumerary bracts also), but is sterile and C. florida ‘Cherokee Brave’, a red-bracted cultivar. The sequence of the primers were the following (5′ to 3′): GAG CCT GT; GAT CGC AG; GTA TCG CC; AAT GCA GC; CTA ACG CC; and GTA ACG CC. DAF as well as cluster analyses were completed using the NTSYS-pc program, version 2.2 (Exeter Software, 100 N. Country Road, Sedtauket, NT 11733). A similarity index is provided in
The abbreviation found in
The following observations, measurements and comparisons describe this cultivar grown in Knoxville, Tenn. The dogwood used for this description was about 15 years old and was growing in the landscape of The University of Tennessee Agricultural Campus. Plant hardiness is expected to be zones 5-9.
The following descriptions uses color references to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart, except where general terms of ordinary dictionary significance are used. All color ratings were on adaxial surfaces. Ratings for abaxial surfaces were not obtained because reflected/refracted light, due to the density of pubescence on abaxial surfaces, made accurate color determinations difficult or impossible. Measurements are provided as a range with the middle value providing the average (lower limit<average value<upper limit).
