Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and – Plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part – per se – Higher plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-23
2003-06-24
Crouch, Deborah (Department: 1632)
Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and
Plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part, per se
Higher plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part
C800S276000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06583339
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to plants belonging to a novel Manilagrass variety newly produced by adding a genetic variation to a single line (strain) of
Zoysia matrella
(common name: Manilagrass) without conventional crossbreeding, cell fusion, gene introduction or the like, which variety retains the characteristics of conventional Manilagrass while also exhibiting a completely new character. Specifically, it relates to a novel Manilagrass that retains its green leaves under the same seasonal conditions in which conventional Manilagrass loses its green leaves. The present invention further relates to Manilagrass that retains its green leaves in winter while producing substantially no anthocyanins under normal cultivating conditions, Manilagrass that has a high stolon density, dwarfed Manilagrass, and newly invented Eragrostoideae plant developed using genotypes absent in conventional Manilagrass lines but present in Manilagrass of the invention.
BACKGROUND ART
“Manilagrass” according to the present invention refers to
Zoysia matrella
that exhibits creeping properties by vegetative growth, having a blade width of 1.0-3.5 mm, and it does not include interspecies hybrid lines obtained by artificial crossbreeding with other species such as
Zoysia japonica, Zoysia tenuifolia
and
Cynodon dactylon
(see Fukuoka, H., “Turfgrass and Its varieties”, ed. by Asano, Y. and Aoki, K., Jun. 15, 1998, Softscience Publications, pp.122-123).
Zoysia matrella
(common name: Manilagrass) is widely used as a ground cover for a broad range of purposes, because of its many features including aesthetic appearance, ground spread, management ease, wear resistance, water stress resistance, growing power and creeping properties.
However, Manilagrass has certain disadvantages including withered leaf during winter, strong preferential growth of main apical buds, impaired appearance due to anthocyanins, and the need for more frequent trimming in summer due to intensified growth; for these reasons, it not only fails to satisfy market needs but is also limited in its uses.
Specifically, for uses that place importance on aesthetic appearance, for example, sports turfs, open areas such as parks, factory lawns and facility exteriors, rooftop heat-insulating greenery, gardens and the like, withered leaf during winter notably lowers the value of Manilagrass, and the concept of “evergreen Manilagrass” has been a requirement for numerous purposes and would meet a very strong market demand.
In order to compensate for withered leaf in winter of Manilagrass and Bermudagrass (
Cynodon dactylon
), many sports turfs are managed with the overseed method (a method in which Western grass, which is a cool season turfgrass, is sown over Manilagrass areas or Bermudagrass areas at the beginning of autumn in order to maintain the green appearance in winter, and then the western grass is killed off in spring to allow resprouting of the Manilagrass or Bermudagrass), or the withered leaf coloring method (a method in which the withered leaves of Manilagrass are colored with a green pigment or dye). These methods, however, require expensive investment each year leading to notable cost increase and, although they are often employed at golf courses and other sports turfs they are difficult to carry out in practice in most other fields, while the overseeding method also results in yearly weakening of the Manilagrass itself.
Withered leaf in winter of Manilagrass is also a fatal drawback for rooftop heat-insulating greenery, used for its effectiveness toward energy reduction and carbon dioxide gas fixation.
Withered leaf in winter of Manilagrass and Bermudagrass tends to result in bare ground due to the wearing that occurs with trampling, etc., and a further drawback, in the case of Manilagrass, is its susceptibility to winter weeds and spring sprouting weeds, which tend to promote turfgrass decay.
In addition to physical methods such as the overseed method and the withered leaf coloring method, the following measures have also been adopted to shorten the withered leaf in winter period of Eragrostoideae turfgrass.
(a) Dispersion of iron chemicals: Iron absorption promotes chlorophyll synthesis to increase the greenness of the plants.
(b) Dispersion of nitrogen fertilizers: This method is effective for maintaining greenness during the initial winter period but it also delays sprouting in spring, and because the withered leaf in winter period is not significantly shortened it is not a preferred method.
(c) Dispersion of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA): This has been reported to have a chlorophyll-increasing effect (“5-Aminolevulinic Acid: Applications for Microbe Production and Lawngrass”, Hotta, Y., Tanaka, T., Watanabe, K., Takeuchi, Y., Konnai, M., “Lawngrass Research” meeting journal, No.27, 1998, pp.138-139).
(d) Breeding methods: It has been attempted to crossbreed
Zoysia matrella
and
Zoysia japonica
, for example, to solve the problem of withered leaf in winter. Further collection and selection of regional lines throughout the world have also been attempted in order to obtain varieties with favorable genotypes, for example, by selection of lines with minimal withered leaf in winter. (For example, Fukuoka, H., “Turfgrass and Its Varieties”, ed. by Asano, Y. and Aoki, K., Softscience Publications, Chap. 3, 3-2, pp.126-130). However, crossbreeding
Zoysia matrella
with other varieties tends to lessen the features of Manilagrass, with the resulting varieties having wider blade widths and inferior aesthetic appearance compared to
Zoysia matrella
, while the problem of withered leaf in winter is not satisfactorily solved. On the other hand, methods involving the latter collection of lines mentioned above have to date failed to provide Manilagrass with sufficient greenness in winter.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to Manilagrass characterized by retaining its green leaves under a condition where the mean temperature of a period of ten days is 6° C. or below and the lowest temperature in this period is −1° C. or below, but not less than −15° C., and by containing substantially no anthocyanins throughout the year.
The invention further relates to the aforementioned Manilagrass, characterized in that the length of the internode of a main stolon except the immature intemodes of the front part of the main stolon, which extends when attached to the soil surface under obstacle-free growth conditions, is about 0.9—about 0.6, where 1.0 is defined as the length for conventional Tottori
Z. matrella
(Tottori Sod Producers Association: the representative Manilagrass single line produced and marketed at 558-1 Oaza-Tokuman, Tohaku-cho, Tohaku-gun; Tottori, Japan).
The invention still further relates to each aforementioned Manilagrass, characterized in that the ratio of the main stolon length to the total lateral stolon length, measuring the total length of lateral stolons developing from the main stolon based on a main stolon length corresponding to at least 20 nodes from the tip of the main stolon of the turigrass of the invention, in stolons extending under obstacle-free growth conditions when attached to the soil surface, is at least 1.2 times compared to conventional Tottori
Z. matrella.
The invention still further relates to Eragrostoideae plant bred from any of the aforementioned Manilagrass as the parental strain by crossbreeding, mutation, cell fusion or gene introduction, that inherits any of the aforementioned characteristics.
The novel Manilagrass of the invention has notably higher lateral stolon extendibility compared to the parental strain (Tottori
Z. matrella
) or Japanese lawngrass (
Zoysia japonica
), and thus has a higher stolon density, forms a stratified mesh mat earlier and has much higher value for practical use.
Formation of a stratified mesh mat offers the following merits:
(1) Because growth (vegetative propagation) of Manilagrass by seed is difficult in practice, productivity can be improved as the method adopted is to strip a 1-2 cm upper layer, as harvest, eac
Crouch Deborah
Kaisui Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.
Paul & Paul
Woitach Joseph
LandOfFree
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