US Plant Patent PP4968
Black walnut tree
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired April 16, 2001. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
No term adjustment or disclaimer is recorded against this patent, so this is the full statutory term — twenty years from the filing date.
The record
- Patent number
- PP4968
- Filed
- April 16, 1981
- Granted
- December 28, 1982
- Expires
- April 16, 2001
- Assignee
- PURDUE RESEARCH FOUNDATION
- Inventor
- BEINEKE WALTER F
No cultivar name of record
This patent does not name the plant. Through the 1980s and early 1990s that was still common: naming every new cultivar only became standard practice as plants began to be marketed under brand names. The grant identifies this one by its number and by a written description instead.
Nothing here is missing from our records: the patent itself states no name. Where one exists we show it, and we do not invent one.
Abstract
A new and distinct cultivar of black walnut tree (Juglans nigra L.) which is distinctly characterized by outstanding nut qualities, such as abundant annual crops of average-sized nuts, begins nut-bearing very early in life of tree, averages 4 nuts per cluster, and produces kernels which exceed about fifteen (15) percent of nut weight. The nuts are medium-sized and ripen mid-season. The new variety is very late in time of leafing and has excellent walnut anthracnose resistance. The pistillate flowers mature very late and pollen maturity is late. In most years there is little overlap in female and male flowering. This variety has fairly slow growth and poor straightness. Flowering begins very early in the life of the tree. This new variety of black walnut tree was discovered by the applicant near Bentonville in Fayette County, Ind., in a cultivated area. In occurred as a wild tree growing on land managed for timber-growing purposes and was discovered in the course of a search for unique and high quality black walnut trees to be utilized in breeding for outstanding timber producing potential. This selection has been designated as BW13 in records maintained on the performance of grafts made from the original selection and will be known henceforth as Fayette-2.
Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.
I claim: 1. A new and distinct variety of black walnut tree substantially as illustrated and described, which produces abundant annual crops of medium-size nuts; averaging 4 per cluster; the percentage of weight of kernel to nut averages approximately 15 percent, and nut bearing begins early in life of tree; time of leafing is much later than average and has excellent anthracnose resistance; pistillate flowers develop very late and pollen sheds late.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4968 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.