Strawberry plant named ‘Driscoll Pearl’

Abstract

This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry named ‘Driscoll Pearl.’ The variety is similar to the varieties ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai.’ The variety is distinguished from ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai,’ in particular, by its longer petiole length, longer fruiting truss length, upright growth habit, strong sweetness of fruit, and highly susceptibility to powdery mildew.

Description

1. Latin name of the genus and species of the plant claimed: The variety is botanically identified as Fragaria×ananassa.

1.1 Variety denomination: The strawberry variety denomination is ‘Driscoll Pearl’.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The new variety originated as a result of a controlled cross between the strawberry plants ‘San Juan’ (U.S. Pant Pat. No. PP12,899) and ‘88E94’ (unpatented) in an ongoing breeding program, and was discovered as a seedling in Monterey County, Calif. in 2000. The original seedling of the new cultivar was asexually propagated by stolons in a Nursery in 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. ‘Driscoll Pearl’ was subsequently asexually propagated and underwent further testing in Monterey County, Calif. for four years. This propagation and testing has demonstrated that the combination of traits disclosed herein which characterize the new variety are fixed and retained true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.

3. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry named ‘Driscoll Pearl.’ The variety 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.

4. COMPARISON TO SIMILAR VARIETIES

The varieties which we believe to be similar to ‘Driscoll Pearl’ from those known to us are ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. PP15,145). There are several characteristics of the new variety that are different from, or not possessed by ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai’. For example, the new variety has a longer petiole length, a longer fruiting truss length, an upright growth habit, strong sweetness of fruit, and is highly susceptible to powdery mildew.

The paternal parent, 88E94, was not available for side by side comparison with ‘Driscoll Pearl’. ‘Driscoll Pearl’ differs from 88E94 by having superior fruit size and shelf-life, greater plant vigor, dark red fruit color compared to 88E94s oranged red. ‘Driscoll Pearl’ also differs from 88E94 by being partially everbearing while 88E94 was fully everbearing. ‘Driscoll Pearl’ is distinguished from its maternal parent ‘San Juan’ as indicated in Tables 1-4.

5. 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 it is reasonably possible to make in color illustrations of these characteristics.

FIG. 1 shows the whole the plant.

FIG. 2 shows the upper side of the leaves of the plant.

FIG. 3 shows the under side and underside of the flowers.

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

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

6. DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW VARIETY

The following detailed description of the new variety is based upon observations taken of plants harvested from a nursery in McArthur, Calif. in October and held in cold storage until planting in Monterey County, Calif. in November and December of the same year. Plants were grown in raised beds of soil under conditions typical of commercial strawberry production in Monterey County, Calif. Fruits were harvested twice weekly from April, 2003 to November, 2003 for yield determination. Observations of ‘Driscoll Pearl’, ‘San Juan’, and ‘Driscoll Lanai’ were made in side by side comparison in August, 2004. 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. Colors are described and the most similar color designations are provided from The Royal Horticultural Society (R.H.S.) Colour Chart.

6.1 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.

6.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW VARIETY

Information on the new variety is presented in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4. In the tables, the flowers described are secondary flowers except where indicated. The fruit described is the secondary fruit on eight month old plants. Fruit and flower measurements are an average of both primary and secondary fruit and flowers.

Table 1 provides information on the plant and fruit characteristics of the new variety ‘Driscoll Pearl’ compared with characteristics of ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai.’ Table 2 provides additional information of the plant and fruit characteristics of the new variety ‘Driscoll Pearl’ compared with characteristics of the varieties ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai.’ Table 3 provides reactions of the new variety to stresses, pests and diseases compared with reactions of the varieties ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai.’ Table 4 provides isozyme characteristics of the new variety as compared to that of the varieties ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai.’

TABLE 1
QUANTITATIVE COMPARISON OF ‘DRISCOLL PEARL,’ ‘SAN
JUAN’ AND ‘DRISCOLL LANAI’
	‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll
	Pearl’	Lanai’	‘San Juan’
Plant Characteristics
Height of Plant (cm)	34.5	26.5	26.1
Spread of Plant (cm)	45.7	44.7	46.6
Number of Crowns	5.3	5.0	5.7
Leaf Characteristics
Terminal Leaflet Length	7.7	6.6	7.5
(cm)
Terminal Leaflet Width	6.9	6.5	7.4
(cm)
Terminal Leaflet	1.11	1.02	1.01
Length/Width Ratio
# Teeth/Terminal Leaflet	20.5	18.8	23.6
Color of upper side	137B	139A medium	147A
	medium green	green	medium to
			dark green
Color of under side	137D	138B	147C
	light grey	light green	light green
	green
Petiole Length (cm)	27.4	22.5	22.7
Petiole Diameter (mm)	4.1	3.6	4.2
Petiole Color	145B	145A	149A
	yellow green	yellow green	yellow green
Petiolule Length (mm)	18.2	14.3	10.8
Petiolule Diameter (mm)	2.2	2.5	2.1
Petiolule Color	145C	145A	149A
	yellow green	yellow green	yellow green
Bract Frequency	8%	25%	75%
	typically	typically	typically
	paired	single	paired
Stipule Length (cm)	3.6	3.4	3.3
Stipule Width (cm)	0.6	0.7	0.6
Stolon Characteristics
Anthocyanin color	59B	60A	59A
	purple red	purple red	purple red
Diameter at bract (mm)	2.56	3.16	3.19
Avg. # of Daughter	68	68	67
plants (2003 Nursery)
Flower Characteristics
Petal Length (cm)	1.23	0.97	1.06
Petal Width (cm)	1.28	1.04	1.18
Petal Length/Width Ratio	0.96	0.93	0.90
Flower Diameter (cm)	2.34	2.42	2.31
Calyx Diameter (cm)	3.96	3.16	3.19
Sepal Length (mm)	15.4	11.8	11.9
Sepal Width (cm)	8.7	5.9	6.9
Petal Color	155C	155C	155C
	white	white	white
Receptical Color	154C	154C	154C
	yellow green	yellow green	yellow green
Anther Color	9A	9A	9A
	yellow	yellow	yellow
Fruiting Truss Length	42.8	28.8	31.2
(cm)
Fruit Characteristics
Fruit Length (cm)	4.4	3.9	4.5
Fruit Width (cm)	3.8	4.1	4.3
Fruit Length/Width Ratio	1.15	0.96	1.03
Average Berry Weight	24.1	23.4	25.2
(g)
External Color	53A	45B	53A
	dark red	orange red	dark red
Internal Color	34B	47C	44A
	orange red	orange red	red
Achene Coloration	185A to 162A	185B to 154B	46B to 16A
	grayed purple	grayed purple	dark red to
	to grayed	to grayed	yellow
	yellow	yellow
Achenes per berry	318.4	323.7	330.9
Achene weight (g)	0.00051	0.00049	0.00059
2003 Marketable Yield	1,854	1,679	1,499
(g/plant)

TABLE 2
QUALITATIVE COMPARISON OF ‘DRISCOLL PEARL,’ ‘SAN
JUAN’ AND ‘DRISCOLL LANAI’
	‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll
	Pearl’	Lanai’	‘San Juan’
Plant
Habit	upright	flat	globose to
			flat globose
Canopy Density	open	open	medium
Vigor	strong to	medium	medium
	very strong
Leaf
Shape in cross section	concave	slightly	flat to
		concave to flat	slightly convex
Interveinal blistering	medium	medium	medium to
			strong
Glossiness	weak to	weak	weak to
	medium		medium weak
Number of leaflets	three only	three only	sometimes
			more than 3
			leaflets
			(approx. 17%
			of leaves)
Terminal leaflet margin	revolute to	revolute to flat	revolute to flat
profile	flat
Terminal leaflet shape of	obtuse to	rounded	obtuse to
base	rounded		rounded
Terminal leaflet shape of	rounded	rounded	rounded
teeth
Stipule pubescence	dense	medium to	medium
		dense
Petiole pubescence	medium to	medium	medium
	dense
Petiole pose of hairs	upwards	downward	outward to
			downward
Stolon
Anthocyanin coloration	medium	strong	strong
Thickness	thin	medium to	medium
		thick
Pubescence	medium to	dense	medium
	dense
Inflorescence
Position relative to	beneath to	level to above	beneath to level
foliage	level with		with
Diameter of calyx	larger	same size to	larger
relative to corolla on		larger
secondary flowers
Diameter of inner calyx	larger	larger	same size
relative to outer on
secondary flowers
Spacing of petals	overlapping	overlapping	overlapping
Fruiting Truss
Attitude at first picking	prostrate	prostrate	prostrate
Fruit
Predominant shape	conical	conical to	conical to
		ovoid	almost
			cylindrical
Difference in shapes	slight	slight	moderate
between primary and
secondary fruits
Band without achenes	very narrow	narrow to	narrow
	to narrow	medium
Unevenness of surface	very weak	weak	medium
Evenness of color	even	even	even
Glossiness	strong	strong	very strong
Insertion of achenes	level with	level with	level with
	surface	surface	surface
Insertion of calyx	level	level	level
Pose of the calyx	spreading to	spreading to	spreading to
segments	reflexed	reflexed	reflexed
Size of calyx in relation	smaller	smaller	same size
to fruit on secondary fruit
Adherence of calyx	medium to	strong	strong
	strong
Firmness of flesh	medium	medium	firm
Evenness of flesh color	slightly	uneven	slightly uneven
	uneven		to even
Distribution of flesh	marginal and	marginal and	marginal and
color	central	central	central
Hollow center size	small to	medium	medium
	medium
Sweetness	strong	medium	medium to
			strong
Texture when tasted	fine	fine	medium
Acidity	medium	medium	medium
Time of First Flowering	early to mid-	mid-February	mid-February
in 2003	February
Harvest Interval in 2003	mid to late-	late-March to	late-March to
	March	Early	Early
		November	November
Type of Bearing	partially	partially	partially
	everbearing	everbearing	everbearing

6.3 REACTION TO STRESS, PESTS, AND DISEASE

TABLE 3
REACTIONS TO STRESS PESTS AND DISEASES FOR ‘DRISCOLL
PEARL,’ ‘SAN JUAN’ AND ‘DRISCOLL LANAI’
		‘Driscoll
	‘Driscoll Pearl’	Lanai’	‘San Juan’
Reaction to Pests
Tetranychus urticae	moderately	susceptible	moderately
	susceptible		susceptible
Lygus hesperus	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Reaction To Diseases
Botrytis fruit rot	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Powdery mildew	highly	susceptible	susceptible
	susceptible
Verticillium wilt	moderately	moderately	susceptible
	resistant	resistant
Strawberry Mottle Virus	moderately	moderately	moderately
	resistant	resistant	resistant
Xanthomonas fragariae	moderately	moderately	moderately
	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible

6.4 ISOZYME ANALYSIS

In addition to the morphological description above, the new cultivar ‘Driscoll Pearl’ 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 ‘Driscoll Pearl’, ‘San Juan’ and ‘Driscoll Lanai’ were analyzed by electrophoresis for isozyme patterns of the enzymes phosphoglucoisomerase (“PGI”), leucine aminopeptidase (“LAP”) and phosphoglucomutase (“PGM”). See J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 106:684-687. Isozyme characterization of the three varieties is presented in Table 4, with the letters representing the banding patterns for each enzyme as designated in the above-identified article.

TABLE 4
ISOZYME ANALYSIS FOR ‘DRISCOLL PEARL,’ ‘SAN JUAN’ AND
‘DRISCOLL LANAI’
		‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll
	Locus	Pearl’	Lanai’	‘San Juan’
	PGI	A2	A1	A2
	LAP	B3	B3	B3
	PGM	C4	C2	C4

Claims

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