Draves

Honeylocust, Thornless

Variety Description

Variety used for comparison: 'Skyline'

Summary: The plants of 'Draves' have a broad columnar upright habit while those of 'Skyline' have a broadly pyramidal spreading habit. The branches of 'Draves' are shorter than those of 'Skyline'. The leaf blades of 'Draves' have absent or very weak anthocyanin colouration during the spring while those of 'Skyline' have anthocyanin colouration ranging from weak to medium. The leaflets of 'Draves' have undulation of the margin while those of 'Skyline' have no undulation. The leaf blades of 'Draves' have strong glossiness while those of 'Skyline' have weak glossiness.

Description:

PLANT: medium vigour, broad columnar upright habit, medium to strong branching strength
TRUNK: medium diameter, brown green (RHS 146A) bark
LENTICELS: elliptical, small, regular distribution, many

BRANCH: thin to medium thickness, no spines, straight shape, brown green (RHS 146A) new shoots, brown green (RHS 148A) developing to grey brown (RHS 199A), circular cross section at half of the height, very acute to acute angle between first 5 cm of branch and stem for upper branches, weakly acute to right angle between first 5 cm of branch and stem for lower branches, straight attitude

LEAF BUD: small, ovate to elliptic, green, obtuse tip, divergent position in relation to the stem
LEAF: bipinnate and pinnate, dark green to brown green (RHS 144A-146A), absent or very weak anthocyanin colouration during spring, dark green (RHS 147A) on upper side in summer, brown green (RHS 146A) on lower side in summer, yellow upper side in fall, semi erect to horizontal attitude in relation to stem, absent or very weak hairiness on upper side with medium hairiness along margin edge, absent or very weak hairiness on the lower side, flat surface profile, absent or very weak doming between veins, obtuse general shape of base
LEAFLET: ovate to lanceolate, broad acute with mucronate tip, undulation of margin present, strong glossiness, very short almost sessile petiole

Origin & Breeding History: 'Draves' was discovered as a chance plant found growing on a residential property in Darien, New York, United States. Asexual reproduction of the new variety was first conducted in February 2006 in Madison, Ohio, United States. The new variety was selected for its strong upright, columnar plant habit.

Tests & Trials: Trials for 'Draves' were conducted in an outdoor field trial during the summer of 2012, in St. Catharines, Ontario. The trial included a total of 10 trees each of the candidate and reference variety. Budwood of the variety 'Draves' was grafted onto Gleditsia triacanthos f. inermis rootstock in summer of 2010. Trees were planted in rows with approximately 50.8 cm spacing between plants and 121.9 cm spacing between rows. After the first year, all trees were headed back in the spring to 200 cm according to the commercial practices. Observations and measurements were taken from 10 plants of each variety on August 16, 2012, with the exception of early bud and early leaf characteristics which were observed on May 16, 2012. All colour determinations were made using the 2007 Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Colour Chart.

Comparison table for 'Draves' with reference variety 'Skyline'

Branch length (cm)

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Honeylocust, Thornless: 'Draves' (left) with reference variety 'Skyline' (right)

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Honeylocust, Thornless: 'Draves' (left) with reference variety 'Skyline' (right)

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Honeylocust, Thornless: 'Draves' (left) with reference variety 'Skyline' (right)