Venus Express

Venus Express

Corn plant named ‘Venus Express’

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Patent expired April 18, 2025. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.

Twenty years from the filing date would end on March 14, 2025. This patent earned 35 days of term adjustment for delay at the Patent Office, which is why it runs longer.

Figure 1 of US plant patent PP17444, the photograph of Venus Express printed in the patent.

Figure 1 from US Plant Patent PP17444, reproduced as printed. Photographs in a plant patent are taken by the applicant. Reproduction of the patent document is permitted; the image is shown whole and uncropped for that reason.

Abstract

A new and distinct corn plant, which is the product of a cross between gamagrass, Tripsacum laxum, and diploid perennial teosinte, Zea diploperennis. This plant is fertile, has proven to be cross compatible with Zea mays L. and offers an avenue to expand the gene pool for commercial corn varieties. The instant plant is perennial with well developed rhizomes, aerenchyma tissue in its roots, abundant seed and prolific vegetation production, traits that give it improved value as a forage crop.

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

1. A new and distinct variety of corn plant, substantially as herein shown and described, that is characterized by its profuse production of fruit, perennial habit, vigorous vegetative production of culms, roots with aerenchyma, asexual reproduction by rhizomes, stem cuttings, and anther culture, and its good combining ability with corn that permits movement of new genes and agronomic traits into corn using conventional plant breeding methods.

Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP17444 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.

The record

Abstract