Strawberry plant named ‘DrisStrawFour’

Abstract

This invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of strawberry plant named ‘DrisStrawFour’. A new cultivar primarily characterized by its large fruit size, heavy fruit production, moderate resistance to Lygus hesperus, Botrytis fruit rot, powdery mildew, and Strawberry Mottle Virus and resistance to Verticillium wilt is disclosed.

Description

Genus and species: Fragaria×ananassa.

Variety denomination: ‘DrisStrawFour’.

BACKGROUND OF THE NEW PLANT

The present invention relates to a new and distinct strawberry cultivar designated ‘DrisStrawFour’ and botanically known as Fragaria×ananassa. This new strawberry cultivar was discovered in December, 2000 and originated from a cross between the female parent ‘6F364’, a proprietary strawberry plant (unpatented) and the male parent ‘Mirador’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,279). The original seedling of the new cultivar was asexually propagated at a nursery in Shasta County, California. ‘DrisStrawFour’ was subsequently asexually propagated and underwent further testing at a nursery in Hillsborough County, Florida for six years. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The accompanying color photographs show typical specimens of the new cultivar at various stages of development as nearly true as it is possible to make in color reproductions.

FIG. 1 shows overall plant habit including fruit at various stages of development.

FIG. 2 shows leaves of the plant with three leaflets.

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

FIG. 4 shows the whole fruit.

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

DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW CULTIVAR

The following description of ‘DrisStrawFour’ is based on observations taken from the 2000 to 2005 growing seasons in Hillsborough County, Florida. This description is in accordance with UPOV terminology. 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. ‘DrisStrawFour’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. Color terminology follows The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart, London (R.H.S.) (2001).

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

Table 1 shows plant characteristics of the new variety compared with plant characteristics of the male parent ‘Driscoll Mirador’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,279). Plant characteristics include plant height, terminal leaf length, petiole length, fruit length, fruit width and Botrytis fruit rot.

	TABLE 1
			‘Driscoll
	Characteristic	‘DrisStrawFour’	Mirador’
	Plant height (cm)	20.9	13.5
	Terminal leaf	8.3	7.7
	length (cm)
	Petiole length	11.2	9.2
	(cm)
	Fruit length (cm)	4.5	3.4
	Fruit width (cm)	4.2	2.4
	Botrytis fruit rot	Moderately resistant	Moderately
			susceptible

Table 2 shows plant characteristics of the new variety compared with plant characteristics of the commercial varieties, ‘Driscoll Malibu’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,070) and ‘Driscoll Osceola’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 15,752). Plant characteristics include plant height, diameter, number of crowns per plant, habit, density of individual plant and vigor.

TABLE 2
Characteristic	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	‘Driscoll Osceola’
Plant height	20.9	17.9	18.5
(cm)
Plant diameter	40.7	39.8	38.2
(cm)
Number of	4	4	2
crowns/plant
Habit	Between flat	Globose	Flat globose
	globose and flat
Density of	Between medium	Medium	Between open
individual plant	and dense		and medium
Vigor	Strong	Between weak	Medium
		and medium

Table 3 shows leaf characteristics of the new cultivar compared with leaf characteristics of ‘Driscoll Malibu’ and ‘Driscoll Osceola’. Leaf characteristics include terminal leaflet length and width in centimeters, length to width ratio, number of teeth per terminal leaflet, shape of teeth, color of upperside and underside of leaf, leaf shape in cross section, leaf blistering, leaf glossiness, number of leaflets, leaflet margin, and shape of leaf base.

TABLE 3
Leaf			‘Driscoll
Characteristic	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	Osceola’
Terminal	8.3	9.3	10.3
leaflet
length (cm)
Terminal	8.2	9.3	10.4
leaflet
width (cm)
Terminal	1.02	1.00	0.98
leaflet
length/width
ratio
No.	25	23	11
teeth/terminal
leaflet
Shape of teeth	Rounded	Between obtuse	Obtuse
		and rounded
Color of	RHS 137A Dark	RHS 141A Dark	RHS 135B
upperside of	green	bright green	Dark bright
leaf			blue-green
Color of	RHS 148C	RHS 139C	RHS 138B
underside of	Medium	Medium green	Medium green
leaf	yellow-green
Leaf shape in	Concave	Between slightly	Between
cross section		concave and flat	concave and
			slightly concave
Leaf blistering	Strong	Medium	Medium
Leaf glossiness	Medium	Weak	Medium
No. leaflets	Three only	Three only	Three only
Terminal	Flat	Flat	Flat
leaflet margin
Terminal	As long as broad	As long as broad	As long as
leaflet:			broad
length/width
ratio
Terminal	Obtuse	Rounded	Rounded
leaflet
base shape

Table 4 shows information about the petiole, the petiolule, the bract, and the stipule of the new cultivar compared to ‘Driscoll Malibu’ and ‘Driscoll Osceola’. This includes petiole length in centimeters, petiole diameter in centimeters, petiolule length in centimeters, petiolule diameter in centimeters, bract frequency per petiole, stipule length in centimeters, stipule width in centimeters, stipule pubescence, petiole pubescence, pose of hairs on the petiole, color of the petiole and color of the petiolule.

TABLE 4
			‘Driscoll
Characteristic	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	Osceola’
Petiole length	11.2	10.5	9.1
(cm)
Petiole diameter	0.417	0.402	0.406
(cm)
Petiole	Between sparse	Dense	Dense
pubescence	and medium
Petiole pose of	Upwards	Downwards	Between
hairs			outwards and
			downwards
Petiole color	RHS 145A Light	RHS 144B Bright	RHS 141C
	yellow-green	yellow-green	Bright medium
			green
Petiolule color	RHS 145C Light
	yellow-green
Petiolule length	1.096	1.424	1.205
(cm)
Petiolule diameter	0.232	0.260	0.251
(cm)
Bract frequency	1	1	0
Stipule length	3.8	4.0	4.5
(cm)
Stipule width	1.047	1.162	1.091
(cm)
Stipule	Medium	Medium	Medium
pubescence

Table 5 shows stolon characteristics of the new cultivar compared to ‘Driscoll Malibu’ and ‘Driscoll Osceola’. These characteristics include the number of stolons, the anthocyanin coloration of the stolons, the thickness of the stolons, and the pubescence of the stolons.

TABLE 5
			‘Driscoll
Characteristic	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	Osceola’
Stolon Number	Few	Few	Few
Stolon	Very strong	Between medium	Between
Anthocyanin		and strong	medium and
			strong
Stolon Thickness	Thick	Between medium	Between
		and thick	medium and
			thick
Stolon	Sparse	Medium	Dense
Pubescence

Table 6 shows inflorescence characteristics of the new cultivar compared to ‘Driscoll Malibu’ and ‘Driscoll Osceola’. These characteristics include inflorescence position relative to foliage, relative flower size, flower diameter in centimeters (measured from petal tip to petal tip), relative spacing of petals, petal length in centimeters, petal width in centimeters, petal length to width ratio, petal color, calyx diameter in centimeters (measured on back of flower from sepal tip to sepal tip), diameter of calyx relative to corolla, diameter of inner calyx relative to outer, sepal length in centimeters (measured from sepal tip to point of attachment to receptacle), sepal width in centimeters, receptacle color and anther color.

TABLE 6
			‘Driscoll
Characteristic	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	Osceola’
Inflorescence	Between level	Between level	Between level
position relative	with and above	with and above	with and above
to foliage
Flower size	Medium	Medium	Medium
Flower diameter	3.014	2.525	3.045
(cm)
Petal spacing	Overlapping	Overlapping	Overlapping
Petal length (cm)	1.278	1.290	1.623
Petal width (cm)	1.463	1.429	1.698
Petal length/width	0.87	0.90	0.96
ratio
Petal length/width	Broader than long	Between much	Between as
ratio		broader than	long as broad
		long and	and longer
		broader than	than broad
		long
Petal color	RHS 155C White	RHS 155C	RHS 155C
		White	White
Calyx diameter	3.776	4.021	5.659
(cm)
Calyx diameter	Larger	Larger	Larger
relative to corolla
Inner calyx	Same size	Larger	Between
diameter relative			smaller and
to outer			same size
Sepal length (cm)	1.252	1.396	2.147
Sepal width (cm)	0.718	0.796	1.182
Receptacle color	RHS 9A Bright
	golden yellow
Anther color	RHS 12A Golden
	yellow

Table 7 shows fruit characteristics of the new cultivar compared to ‘Driscoll Malibu’ and ‘Driscoll Osceola’.

TABLE 7
			‘Driscoll
Characteristic	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	Osceola’
Fruiting truss	19.1	17.4	19.9
length (cm)
Fruiting truss	Prostrate	Prostrate	Prostrate
attitude
Fruiting truss	Between short	Short	Between short
length	and medium		and medium
Fruit length (cm)	4.517	4.921	4.223
Fruit width (cm)	4.183	3.960	3.968
Fruit length/width	1.08	1.24	1.06
ratio
Fruit length/width	As long as broad	Between as	As long as
ratio		long as broad	broad
		and longer than
		broad
Fruit weight (g)	28	28	30
Relative fruit size	Medium	Between	Between small
		medium and	and medium
		large
Predominant fruit	Cordate	Conical	Cordate
shape
Difference in	Slight	Slight	Slight
shape between
primary &
secondary fruits
Band without	Medium	Between	Between
achenes		absent and	absent and
		very narrow	very narrow to
			narrow
Unevenness of	Between absent	Medium	Weak
fruit surface	and very weak
Fruit skin color	RHS 46A Dark	RHS 46B Dark	RHS 46A
	red	bright red	Dark red
Evenness of fruit	Even	Slightly uneven	Slightly uneven
color
Fruit glossiness	Between medium	Strong	Strong
	and strong
Insertion of	Level with	Between below	Below surface
achenes	surface	surface and
		level with
		surface
Achene	RHS 181A Dark
coloration-	greyed-red
sunward side of
berry
Achene	RHS 13A Golden
coloration-shaded	yellow
side of berry
Achenes per berry	356
Achene weight	0.0014
Insertion of calyx	Level	Level	Level
Pose of calyx	Between	Reflexed	Between
segments	spreading and		spreading and
	reflexed		reflexed
Size of calyx in	Between same	Between same	Between same
relation to fruit	size and larger	size and larger	size and larger
Adherence of	Strong	Strong	Strong
calyx
Firmness of flesh	Medium	Between soft	Between soft
		and medium	and medium
Color of the flesh	RHS 44B Bright	RHS 48C	RHS 48D Light
	red and RHS	Medium pink	pink
	155C White
Evenness of flesh	Slightly uneven	Slightly uneven	Slightly uneven
color
Distribution of	Marginal and	Marginal and	Marginal and
flesh color	central	central	central
Hollow center	Large	Small	Medium
Sweetness	Strong	Medium	Medium
Acidity	Medium	Medium	Medium
Texture when	Medium	Medium	Fine
tasted
Time of flowering	Very early	Very early	Very early
Harvest maturity	Early-Mid	Late	Late
(50% of plants	November to
with ripe fruit)	early April
Type of bearing	Fully everbearing	Partially	Partially
		everbearing	everbearing
Grams of	443	287	422
fruit/plant

Table 8 shows the resistance to different forms of stress of the new cultivar compared to ‘Driscoll Malibu’ and ‘Driscoll Osceola’. These forms of stress include high temperatures and pesticides.

TABLE 8
Reaction to			‘Driscoll
Stress	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	Osceola’
High	Moderately resistant
temperatures

Table 9 shows pest and disease characteristics of the new cultivar compared to ‘Driscoll Malibu’ and ‘Driscoll Osceola’.

TABLE 9
			‘Driscoll
Pest or Disease	‘DrisStrawFour’	‘Driscoll Malibu’	Osceola’
Tetranychus urticae	Moderately	Susceptible	Susceptible
(2-spotted spider	susceptible
mite)
Tarsonemus pallidus	Moderately
	resistant
Aphelencoides	Moderately
fragariae	resistant
Pratylenchus	Moderately
penetrans	susceptible
Aphis spp. (Aphids)	Moderately
	susceptible
Lygus hesperus	Moderately	Susceptible	Susceptible
(Lygus bug)	resistant
Botrytis fruit rot	Moderately	Susceptible	Susceptible
	resistant
Powdery mildew	Moderately	Moderately	Moderately
	resistant	susceptible	susceptible
Verticillium wilt	Resistant	Highly	Susceptible
		susceptible
Leather rot	Resistant
Red stele	Moderately
Phytophthora	resistant
fragariae
Ramularia tulasnei-	Moderately
Leaf spots	resistant
Leaf scorch	Resistant
Leaf blight	Resistant
Black root rot	Resistant
Viral diseases-	Moderately	Susceptible	Susceptible
Strawberry Mottle	resistant
Virus
Xanthomonas	Moderately	Moderately	Moderately
fragariae	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible

Claims

1. A new and distinct cultivar of strawberry plant as described and shown herein.