USCAL41401

Calibrachoa

Variety Description

Variety used for comparison: 'Wescasnow' (Celebration Compact Snowball)

Summary: The plant of 'USCAL41401' has an upright growth habit while that of 'Wescasnow' has a semi-upright growth habit. The shoot of 'USCAL41401' is shorter than that of 'Wescasnow'. The leaf blade of 'USCAL41401' is smaller than that of 'Wescasnow'. The pedicel of 'USCAL41401' is longer than that of 'Wescasnow'. The flower of 'USCAL41401' has strong conspicuousness of veins whereas the flower of 'Wescasnow' has medium conspicuousness of veins. At the transition to the corolla tube, the corolla of 'USCAL41401' has a medium sized yellow area with brown purple veins and a very large star shaped marking whereas the corolla of 'Wescasnow' has a small purple and yellow area and a large wedge shaped marking. The flowers of 'USCAL41401' change from light yellow, when newly opened, to white with brown purple veins, when fully opened, whereas the flowers of 'Wescasnow' change from white, when newly opened, to white with dark purple red veins, when fully opened.

Description:

PLANT: upright growth habit

LEAF BLADE: narrow to broad acute apex, no variegation, medium green

PEDICEL: weak intensity of anthocyanin colouration
FLOWER: single type, weak degree of lobing, strong conspicuousness of veins
COROLLA LOBE: inner side light yellow (RHS 10D) when newly opened, white (RHS 155D) with brown purple (RHS 187A) veins when fully opened and white (RHS NN155B) when aged; medium sized yellow (RHS 9A) area with brown purple (RHS 187A) veins at transition to corolla tube, very large star shaped marking at transition to corolla tube, no colour change due to environment, rounded and truncate apex
COROLLA TUBE (INNER SIDE): yellow (RHS 12A), medium conspicuousness of veins

Origin & Breeding History: 'USCAL41401' was bred and developed by the breeder, Ushio Sakazaki as part of a planned breeding program. The new variety originated from a controlled cross between the proprietary varieties designated '11CJ37-09', as the female parent, and '11CJ42', as the male parent. The cross was conducted in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan on May 7, 2011. 'USCAL41401' was selected as a single plant from the resultant progeny on May 24, 2012 in Bonsall, California, USA based on summer performance, flowering time and flower colour pattern. Asexual reproduction by vegetative tip cuttings was first conducted on May 25, 2012 in Bonsall, California, USA.

Tests & Trials: The comparative trial for 'USCAL41401' was conducted outdoors in an irrigated hanging basket trial during the summer of 2015 at BioFlora Inc. in St. Thomas, Ontario. The trial included a total of 20 plants each of the candidate and reference variety. All plants were grown from rooted cuttings and transplanted into 30 cm hanging baskets on May 19, 2015. Each basket contained 4 cuttings with a total of 5 baskets per variety. Observations and measurements were taken from 10 plants or parts of plants of each variety on July 10, 2015. All colour determinations were made using the 2007 Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Colour Chart.

Comparison tables for 'USCAL41401' with reference variety 'Wescasnow'

Shoot length (cm)

Leaf blade length (cm)

Leaf blade width (cm)

Pedicel length (cm)

Colour of inner side of corolla lobe (RHS)

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Calibrachoa: 'USCAL41401' (left) with reference variety 'Wescasnow' (right)

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Calibrachoa: 'USCAL41401' (left) with reference variety 'Wescasnow' (right)

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Calibrachoa: 'USCAL41401' (left) with reference variety 'Wescasnow' (right)