Yofabienne

Chrysanthemum

Variety Description

Variety used for comparison: 'Dark Cherie'

Summary: 'Yofabienne' is a spray chrysanthemum variety which has shorter plants and smaller leaves than 'Dark Cherie'. The leaves of 'Yofabienne' have converging margins of the sinus between the lateral lobes, whereas 'Dark Cherie' leaves have diverging sinus margins. 'Yofabienne' has smaller flower heads than 'Dark Cherie' and the flowers of the candidate variety are bicoloured. 'Dark Cherie' flowers are single coloured.

Description:

'Yofabienne' is spray type chrysanthemum variety which has short plants with many primary lateral shoots. There is no anthocyanin on the stems. The leaves are very short to short in length and very narrow to narrow in width. The base of the leaf is wedge shaped. The lower lobe of the leaf is very short to short, with a shallow sinus. The margins of the sinus between the lateral lobes are converging.

'Yofabienne' has single, daisy type flower heads, which are bi-coloured, purple and white. The flower heads are very small to small in diameter. There are approximately 23 to 32 ray florets per head and no bracts among the florets. The ray florets are slightly reflexing and very short, with a very short corolla tube. The outer florets are very narrow. In cross section the ray florets are flat, with an emarginate or dentate tip. The upper surface of the outer ray florets is whitish with a light red-purple overcolour from the midsection to the apex. The lower surface of the ray floret is whitish with purplish pink at the apex. 'Yofabienne' has a yellow green disc before anther dehiscence. At dehiscence the disc is yellow. It is small in diameter and the disc florets are tubular and massed at the centre of the flower head.

Origin & Breeding History: 'Yofabienne' is the product of a planned breeding program conducted by the breeder, an employee of Yoder Brothers, Inc. The variety originated from a cross made in May 1997, in Salinas, California. The female parent was a proprietary Chrysanthemum seedling identified as YB-6500 and the variety 'Chantal' was the male parent. A single flowering plant was selected from within the progeny of the cross in March 1998, in a controlled environment in Fort Myers, Florida. The selection of this plant, which became the variety 'Yofabienne', was based on uniform plant growth habit, desirable inflorescence form and floret colours, fast response time and excellent postproduction longevity. Asexual reproduction of 'Yofabienne' was first conducted in Fort Myers, Florida, in July 1998.

Tests & Trials: Tests and trials for 'Yofabienne' were conducted at Yoder Canada Ltd., Leamington, Ontario, in the fall of 2005. Flowering trials were performed under greenhouse conditions similar to those used in commercial production. On August 8, 2005, unrooted cuttings of the candidate and reference varieties were directly stuck into 15cm pots, with 4 cuttings per pot and 10 pots per variety. Plants were pinched once prior to short day treatment. All plants had the centre bud removed. Pots were spaced 12 inches apart. Observationa and measurements were taken from 10 plants of each variety on November 3, 2005. All colour measurements were made using the RHS Colour Chart 2001.

Comparison tables for 'Yofabienne' with reference variety 'Dark Cherie'

Plant height (cm)

Leaf length (cm)

Leaf width (cm)

Flower head diameter (cm)

Colour of outer ray floret (RHS)

Click on image for larger view

Chrysanthemum: 'Yofabienne' (left) with reference variety 'Dark Cherie' (right)