Cactaceae plant

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Patent expired January 24, 1995. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.

Twenty years from the filing date would end on January 18, 1997, but this patent ends 725 days earlier — a terminal disclaimer gives term back. A source that calculates twenty years from filing would tell you this plant is still protected when it is already free.

The record

Patent number

PP4198

Filed

January 18, 1977

Granted

January 24, 1978

Expires

January 24, 1995

Assignee

B L COBIA INC

Inventor

COBIA BARNELL L; GRIFFITH STEPHEN H

No cultivar name of record

This patent does not name the plant, and for its era that is ordinary rather than an omission. Before about 1980, breeders frequently patented a plant without giving it a cultivar name at all — the grant identified it by its number, its parentage and a written description of the flower and foliage. Most plant patents from the 1930s to the 1970s have no name in them.

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 variety of the Cactaceae family is related to the Zygocactus truncatus `Kris Kringle` and Zygocactus truncatus `Lavender Doll` varieties provides specimens with a natural tendency to branch during the growth period preceding blooming without the need for inducement by pruning. The specimens have a fast growth rate which provides an upright, compact appearance and wherein the phylloclades have generally shorter midribs than those of the `Lavender Doll` variety and generally thicker teeth than those of the `Kris Kringle` variety. The specimens exhibit resistances to nutrient deficiencies, fungus type diseases and flower bud abscission that are comparable to those of the `Kris Kringle` and `Lavender Doll` variety and the flower appears later than that of the `Kris Kringle` variety and has a bloom life of from about 6 to about 9 days. The flower hues are red, pink, purplish red and/or yellowish pink.

Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.

We claim: 1. The new and distinct variety of the Cactaceae family as described and illustrated and which is principally distinguished by a growth habit that combines the following characteristics: a. A natural tendency to branch during the growth period preceding blooming without inducement by pruning. b. A fast growth rate with resistances to nutrient deficiencies, fungus type diseases and flower bud abscission that are comparable to those of the `Kris Kringle` and `Lavender Doll` varieties. c. Specimens with an upright compact appearance having phylloclades with generally shorter midribs than those of the `Lavender Doll` variety and with generally thicker teeth than those of the `Kris Kringle` variety, d. A flower which blooms from about 1 to 3 weeks later than that of the `Kris Kringle` variety and has a bloom life of from about 6 to about 9 days and which has 1. A sepaloid series of free tepals with marginal blade areas in the inner and outer whorl members that in color are dominated by reddish purple, purplish red and/or purplish pink hues and with center fields in the inner whorl members that in color are dominated by pink and/or yellowish pink hues in the basal areas of the fields and by pink, red and/or reddish orange hues in the distal areas of the fields, 2. 2. A perianth tube laminating series of tepals with center fields which extend into the apex areas of the tepal blades and in color are dominated by red, pink, purplish red and/or yellowish pink hues, and with lateral marginal areas which in color are dominated by reddish purple, purplish red and/or red hues, 3. A perianth tube forming series of basally united tepals that provide a perianth tube with a basic color which is dominated by yellowish pink and/or pink hues and on which is superimposed elongated, circumferentially spaced, stripes that are proximally extending colors found in the blade marginal areas and having blades with marginal areas which in color are dominated by reddish purple and/or purplish red hues that merge inwardly with a center blade field that in color is dominated by pink and/or purplish pin hues, and 4. A style which in color is dominated at its proximal end by a purplish pink hue and at its distal end by a purplish red hue.

Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4198 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.