Yofire Island

Chrysanthemum

Variety Description

Varieties used for comparison: 'Pelee' and 'Yococoa Beach'

Summary: 'Yofire Island' has a higher number of primary lateral shoots than 'Pelee'. 'Yofire Island' has a longer leaf length than the reference varieties. The leaves of 'Yofire Island' have diverging to parallel margins of sinus between lateral lobes while 'Yococoa Beach' has overlapping margins. The flower head of 'Yofire Island' is bicoloured while the flower head of 'Yococoa Beach' is chromatic self coloured. 'Yofire Island' has a shorter corolla tube than 'Yococoa Beach' and less pointed ray floret tips than 'Pelee'. 'Yofire Island' has a narrower ray floret than 'Pelee'.

Description:

'Yofire Island' is a year round, pinched, disbud pot chrysanthemum variety. The stem has no anthocyanin colouration. The leaves have an asymmetrical, acute shaped base and the margins of sinus between lateral lobes are diverging to parallel.

The flowers are a semi-double daisy type and are red and yellow in colour. The outer ray florets are medium in width, reflexing along the longitudinal axis and flat to convex in cross section. The tip of the ray floret is emarginate, mamillate and dentate in shape. The disc florets are a tubular type and are yellow green in colour before anther dehiscence and yellow at anther dehiscence. The disc florets are numerous, massed and clearly visible at all stages of flower head development

Origin & Breeding History: 'Yofire Island' is the product of a planned breeding program, conducted by Wendy R. Bergman of Yoder Brothers Inc. in Barberton, Ohio, USA. It originated from a cross made in Salinas, California in October 1994, between the variety 'Rage' as the female parent and a proprietary seedling as the male parent. 'Yofire Island' was discovered and selected by the breeder as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross grown in a controlled environment in Salinas, California. The selection criteria were based on its uniform plant growth habit, desirable inflorescence form, floret colour, response time and excellent post production longevity. Asexual reproduction was initiated in July 1996, by vegetative tip cuttings in a controlled environment in Fort Myers, Florida, USA.

Tests & Trials: Tests and trials were conducted at Yoder Canada Ltd. in Leamington, Ontario in the fall of 2004. Trials were performed under greenhouse conditions which approximate those used in commercial greenhouse practice. 40 unrooted cuttings of both the candidate and reference variety were directly stuck into 15 cm pots with 4 cuttings per pot. Plants were spaced 30 cm apart and were pinched once prior to short day treatment. All plants were disbudded. Observations and measurements were taken on 10 plants of each variety and all colour measurements were made using the RHS Colour chart 2001.

Comparison tables for 'Yofire Island' with reference varieties 'Pelee' and 'Yococoa Beach'

Number of primary lateral shoots

Leaf length (cm)

Colour of upper surface of ray floret (RHS)

Colour of ray floret (RHS)