Strawberry plant named `Sonora`

Abstract

This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry named `Sonora`. The present variety is similar to the varieties `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`. The present variety is fully everbearing, and is further distinguished from `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`, in particular, by its flat globose habit, strong interveinal blistering, weak leaf glossiness, rounded terminal leaflet shape of base and teeth, sparse petiole pubescence, dense to very dense stolon pubescence, a position of inflorescence above the foliage, larger calyx diameter relative to the corolla, a semi-erect attitude of the fruiting truss at first picking, predominantly conical fruit, very slight to slight differences between shapes of primary and secondary fruits, very narrow to narrow band without achenes, very weak unevenness of surface of the fruit, weak to medium glossiness of the fruit, spreading to reflexed pose of the calyx segments, even flesh color of the fruit, and absent to small hollow center size.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The new variety, `Sonora`, originated as a result of a controlled cross between the strawberry plants `33×257` and `L2` (both unpatented varieties of Driscoll Strawberry Associates, Inc.) in an ongoing breeding program, and was discovered as a seedling in a controlled breeding plot in Monterey County, Calif. The original seedling of the new cultivar was asexually propagated by stolons at a Nursury in McArthur, Shasta County, Calif. Propagules were transplanted to a controlled breeding plot in Monterey County, Calif., where the variety was identified and selected for further evaluation in May 1996. The new variety, `Sonora`, was subsequently asexually propagated and underwent further testing in the Monterey Bay area in California for five years. This propagation and testing has demonstrated that the combination of traits disclosed herein which characterize the new variety are fixed and are retained true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry named `Sonora`. The varierty is botanically identified as Fragaria×ananassa. The new variety is distinguished from other varieties by a number of characteristics as set forth in Tables 1-4.

COMPARISON TO SIMILAR VARIETIES

The varieties that we believe to be similar to `Sonora` from those known to us are `Commander` (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,024), `San Juan` (U.S. plant application Ser. No. 09/524,581), and `Ana Maria` (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,035). There are several characteristics of the new variety that are different from, or not possessed by, `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`. The new variety is fully everbearing and has a flat globose habit, strong interveinal blistering, weak leaf glossiness, rounded terminal leaflet shape of base and teeth, sparse petiole pubescence, dense to very dense stolon pubescence, a position of inflorescence above the foliage, larger calyx diameter relative to the corolla, a semi-erect attitude of the fruiting truss at first picking, predominantly conical fruit, very slight to slight differences between shapes of primary and secondary fruits, very narrow to narrow band without achenes, very weak unevenness of surface of the fruit, weak to medium glossiness of the fruit, spreading to reflexed pose of the calyx segments, even flesh color of the fruit, and absent to small hollow center size.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying photographs show typical specimens of the new variety, including fruit, foliage and flowers, in color as nearly true as reasonably possible in illustrations of this type.

FIG. 1 shows the whole plant.

FIG. 2 shows the leaves of the plant.

FIG. 3 shows the upperside and the underside of the flowers.

FIG. 4 shows a close-up view of the fruit.

FIG. 5 shows the fruit in longitudinal cross-section.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW VARIETY

The following detailed description of the new variety is based upon recorded observations of plants and fruit grown in Monterey County, Calif., U.S.A. Observations of `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria` were taken side-by-side comparison in 2000. This description is in accordance with terminology used by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). Color designations, color descriptions, and other phenotypical descriptions may deviate from the stated values and descriptions depending upon variation in environmental, seasonal, climatic and cultural conditions. Where colors are described herein, the most similar color designations are provided from The Royal Horticultural Society (R.H.S) Colour Chart.

PROPAGATION

The new variety is principally propagated by way of stolons. Although propagation by stolons is presently preferred, other known methods of propagating strawberry plants may be employed.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW VARIETY

Information on the new variety is presented in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4. The flowers described in the tables are secondary flowers except where indicated. The fruit described is the secondary fruit on one-year-old plants. Fruit and flower measurements are an average of both primary and secondary fruit and flowers. Additional charateristic of the fruit of `Sonora` include a medium acidity, having an average titratable acidity of 1.13%, an average brix of 11.8%, and the vascular tissue in `Sonora` fruit is white (155D) in color. Characteristics of the stolons are also included in the Tables. In 2001, `Sonora` produced an average of 33 daughter plants per mother plant in a low-elevation nursery, while `San Juan` produced an average of 61 daughters/mother plant, indicating fewer stolons were produced by `Sonora`. The time of first flowering of `Sonora` in the Watsonville area is late February to early March.

Table 1 provides information on the plant and fruit characteristics of the new variety `Sonora` compared with characteristics of the varieties `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`. Table 2 provides additional information of the plant and fruit characteristics of the new variety `Sonora` compared with characteristics of the varieties `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`. Table 3 provides the new variety's reactions to stress, pests, and diseases as compared to the varieties `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`.

In addition to morphological descriptions, the new cultivar `Sonora` has been analyzed to obtain an indication of its genetic makeup to provide further means for identifying the new variety and distinguishing it from other somewhat similar and/or related strawberry varieties. Specifically, leaf samples of `Sonora`, `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria` were analyzed by electrophoresis for isozyme patterns of the enzymes phosphoglucoisomerase (PGI), leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) and phosphogluomutase (PGM). See e.g., J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 106:684-687. Table 4 provides isozyme characteristics of the new variety as compared to the varieties `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`.

TABLE 1
Detailed comparison of `Sonora`, `Commander`, `San Juan` and
`Ana Maria`
		`Com-		`Ana
	`Sonora`	mander`	`San Juan`	Maria`
Plant Characteristics
Height of Plant (cm)	25.3	24.6	24.3	30.6
Spread of Plant (cm)	43.9	47.1	43.2	50.0
Number of Crowns	6.0	4.7	5.7	5.6
Leaf Characteristics
Terminal Leaflet Length	6.0	7.5	7.5	8.0
Terminal Leaflet Width	6.4	7.4	7.6	8.2
(cm)
Terminal Leaflet	0.92	1.02	0.99	0.98
Length/Width Ratio
# Teeth/Terminal Leaflet	20.6	16.9	20.1	19.7
Color of upperside	147A	147A	147A	147A
	medium	medium	dark green	medium
	to dark	green		green
	green
Color of underside	148B	148B	148C	148B
	light gray	light gray	light gray	light gray
	green	green	green	green
Petiole Length (cm)	18.8	20.2	21.7	21.9
Petiole Color	145A	145A	145A	145B
Bract Frequency	0%	20%	60%	50%
		Typically	Typically	Typically
		single	paired	paired
Stipule Length (cm)	3.1	3.1	3.8	3.4
Stipule Width (cm)	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.7
Flower Characteristics
Petal Length (cm)	1.17	1.16	1.23	1.38
Petal Width (cm)	1.23	1.17	1.26	1.37
Petal Length/Width Ratio	0.95	0.99	0.98	1.01
Flower Diameter (cm)	2.99	2.94	3.05	3.40
Calyx Diameter (cm)	3.48	3.28	3.58	3.79
Flower Color	155C	155C	155D	155C
Fruit Characteristics
Fruit Length (cm)	4.7	4.6	4.8	4.6
Fruit Width (cm)	4.0	4.1	4.3	3.7
Fruit Length/Width Ratio	1.17	1.12	1.12	1.24
Average Berry	22.4	23.9	26.1	19.3
Weight (g)
External Color	53A	45B	46A	46A
	dark red	orange red	red	red
Internal Color	45A	44B	44A	44B
	dark red	orange red	medium	orange red
			red
Achene Coloration	53A and	46A and	46A and	46B and
	17A dark	14A dark	16A dark	16A dark
	red and	red and	red and	red and
	yellow	yellow	yellow	yellow
Yield (g/plant)	1367	1400	1212	1327

TABLE 2
Characterisitcs of `Sonora`, `Commander`, `San Juan` and `Ana Maria`
	`Sonora`	`Commander`
Plant
Habit	flat globose	flat globose
Density	dense	medium
Vigor	medium	medium
Leaf
Shape in cross section	concave	flat
Interveinal blistering	strong	weak
Glossiness	weak	medium to strong
Number of leaflets	3 only	3 only
Terminal leaflet margin	flat	revolute to flat
profile
Terminal leaflet shape of	rounded	rounded
base
Terminal leaflet shape of	rounded	rounded
teeth
Stipule pubescence	sparse	medium dense
Petiole pubescence	sparse	medium
Petiole pose of hairs	outward	outward
Stolon
Number	few to medium	medium to many
Anthocyanin coloration	medium	--
Thickness	medium	--
Pubescence	dense to very	--
	dense
Inflorescence
Position relative to foliage	above	level with to above
Diameter of calyx relative	larger	same size to larger
to corolla on secondary
flowers
Diameter of inner calyx	same size	same size
relative to outer on
secondary flowers
Spacing of petals	overlapping	overlapping
Fruiting Truss
Attitude at first picking	semi-erect	prostrate
Length (cm)	30.3	33.0
Fruit
Predominant shape	conical	conical to bi-
		conical
Difference in shapes	very slight to	slight
between primary and	slight
secondary fruits
Band without achenes	very narrow to	narrow to medium
	narrow
Unevenness of surface	very weak	weak
Evenness of color	even	slightly uneven
Glossiness	weak to medium	strong
Insertion of achenes	below to level	level with surface
	with surface
Insertion of calyx	level to in a	level
	basin
Pose of the calyx segments	spreading to	spreading
	reflexed
Size of calyx in relation to	same size to	same size
fruit on secondary fruit	larger
Adherence of calyx	strong	strong
Firmness of flesh	medium	medium
Evenness of flesh color	even	slightly uneven
Distribution of flesh color	marginal and	marginal and
	central	central
Hollow center size	absent to small	medium
Sweetness	medium to	medium to strong
	strong
Texture when tasted	medium	medium
Acidity	medium	medium to weak
Time of Flowering	medium	early to medium
Harvest Interval	Mid-April to	Mid-April to Early
	Early November	November
Type of Bearing	fully	partially
	everbearing	everbearing
	`San Juan`	`Ana Maria`
Plant
Habit	globose to	globose to upright
	flat globose
Density	medium	open
Vigor	medium	strong
Leaf
Shape in cross section	flat to	concave
	slightly convex
Interveinal blistering	medium to strong	medium to strong
Glossiness	weak to medium	medium
	weak
Number of leaflets	sometimes more	3 only
	than 3 leaflets
	(approx. 17% of
	leaves)
Terminal leaflet margin	revolute to flat	flat
profile
Terminal leaflet shape of	obtuse to rounded	rounded to slightly
base		oblique
Terminal leaflet shape of	rounded	obtuse
teeth
Stipule pubescence	medium dense	sparse
Petiole pubescence	medium	sparse
Petiole pose of hairs	outward to	outward
	downward
Stolon
Number	medium to many	medium to many
Anthocyanin coloration	strong	strong
Thickness	medium	medium
Pubescence	medium	medium to dense
Inflorescence
Position relative to foliage	beneath to level	level with to above
	with
Diameter of calyx relative	larger	smaller to same
to corolla on secondary		size
flowers
Diameter of inner calyx	same size	smaller to same
relative to outer on		size
secondary flowers
Spacing of petals	overlapping	overlapping
Fruiting Truss
Attitude at first picking	prostrate	semi-erect
Length (cm)	28.5	33.3
Fruit
Predominant shape	conical to almost	conical
	cylindical
Difference in shapes	moderate	none to very slight
between primary and
secondary fruits
Band without achenes	narrow	narrow to medium
Unevenness of surface	medium	very weak to weak
Evenness of color	even	even
Glossiness	very strong	strong
Insertion of achenes	level with surface	below to level
		with surface
Insertion of calyx	level	level to set above
Pose of the calyx segments	spreading to	spreading
	reflexed
Size of calyx in relation to	same size	same size to larger
fruit on secondary fruit
Adherence of calyx	strong	weak to medium
Firmness of flesh	firm	firm
Evenness of flesh color	slightly uneven to	slightly uneven
	even
Distribution of flesh color	marginal and	marginal and
	central	central
Hollow center size	medium	small
Sweetness	medium to strong	medium to strong
Texture when tasted	medium	medium
Acidity	medium	medium
Time of Flowering	medium to late	medium to late
Harvest Interval	Mid-April to Early	Mid-April to Early
	November	November
Type of Bearing	partially	partially
	everbearing	everbearing

TABLE 3
Reactions to Stress, Pests, and Diseases for `Sonora`, `Commander`,
`San Juan` and `Ana Maria`
		`Comm-
	`Sonora`	ander`	`San Juan`	`Ana Maria`
Reaction to Stress
high pH	moderately	moderately	moderately	moderately
	resistant	resistant	resistant	resistant
high soil	moderately	moderately	moderately	moderately
salt levels	resistant	resistant	resistant	resistant
Reaction to Pests
Tetranychus	moderately	moderately	moderately	moderately
urticae	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Aphis spp.	susceptible	suceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Lygus hesperus	susceptible	suceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Reaction To Diseases
Botrytis	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
fruit rot
Powdery	susceptible	moderately	moderately	moderately
mildew		resistant	resistant	resistant
Verticillium	moderately	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
wilt	resistant
Strawberry	moderately	moderately	moderately	moderately
Mottle	resistant	resistant	resistant	resistant
Virus
Xanthomonas	moderately	moderately	moderately	moderately
fragariae	resistant	resistant	resistant	resistant

TABLE 4
Isozyme Analysis for `Sonora`, `Commander`, `San Juan` and
`Ana Maria`
Locus	`Sonora`	`Commander`	`San Juan`	`Ana Maria`
PGI	A2	A4	A2	A1
LAP	B3	B3	B3	B3
PGM	C4	C4	C4	C4

Claims

1. A new and distinct variety of strawberry plant, substantially as shown and described.