US Plant Patent PP4453
Distinct variety of bluegrass plant
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired May 15, 1998. 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
- PP4453
- Filed
- May 15, 1978
- Granted
- August 21, 1979
- Expires
- May 15, 1998
- Assignee
- PURDUE RESEARCH FOUNDATION
- Inventor
- DANIEL WILLIAM 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
{PG,1 A Kentucky bluegrass plant which exhibits strong rhizome spread and thus predominates over other adjacent bluegrasses. The plant is a medium to light green color and this contributes to more drouth tolerance than dark green bluegrasses characteristically have. The new variety has moderate leafspot and powdery mildew resistance and is ideally suited for roadside use where competition from weeds is intense. The density and wear resistance of the new variety also make it useful for athletic fields, playgrounds, parks, and other surfaces where a high wear factor is involved. The new variety of Kentucky bluegrass was developed from clones originally discovered during 1952 among a collection of 24 bluegrasses taken from fairways of the Chicago Golf Club of Wheaton, Ill., in a cultivated area. The new variety was the result of six generations as reported hereinafter, and the variety has been named {37 Wabash{38 . The instant plant was asexually reproduced by cuttings through succeeding propagations. Each subsequent generation from seed maintained the characteristics of the original parent plant. The original plant was selected as a discovery which was unique. The subject plant is a single, genetically identical plant, as shown by the fact that applicants carried through additional generations and continued to find that this particular plant was genetically true. A single plant propagation was used, reproduced in series, as a way of maintaining identity. The plant increase began with {b 1{l W{B 19{L N, the sixth generation. The variety is characterized by its rapid spread by rhizomes and its predominance in solid stands after establishment. Its tolerance to disease and its good density have resulted in reduction of crabgrass and weed infestation of Wabash stands when compared to other bluegrass cultivars. The new variety has greater tolerance to drouth, probably due to its lighter green color, as indicated by delayed wilting. It is distinctive in this wilt resistance from all other varieties of which applicant is aware.
Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.
What is claimed is: 1. A new and distinct variety of bluegrass plant, Poa pratensis, substantially as described and illustrated, and particularly characterized by a medium green color, vigorous rhizome spread, and good disease tolerance.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4453 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.