Newon

Scaevola

Variety Description

Variety used for comparison: 'Purple Fan'

Summary: At a young age, plant growth habit for scaevola variety 'Newon' is upright while it is more pendulous for 'Purple Fan'. The plants of 'Newon' have more narrow leaf blades and fewer flowers per inflorescence than those of 'Purple Fan'. Time of flowering begins earlier for 'Newon' than 'Purple Fan'.

Description:

'Newon' is a vegetatively propagated annual scaevola variety. Plant growth habit is initially upright becoming irregular to pendulous as the plant matures. The plants produce a moderate to large number of branches. The medium thick stems are medium green and have weak to strong intensity of anthocyanin colouration which is red brown in colour. There is less anthocyanin in the early stages of development. The stems are smooth and pubescence of the stems is very sparse. The leaf type is simple and alternately arranged. The leaf blades are spatulate in shape with an irregularly serrate margin. The leaf blades have an acute shaped apex and attenuate shaped base. Pubescence of the leaf blades is coarse and sparse on the upper side and absent on the lower side. Main colour of the leaf blade is medium green on the upper side and light green on the lower side. There is no petiole and no peduncle. The sepals are linear-elliptic in shape with a round shaped apex and the tip is not recurved.

'Newon' begins flowering early and flowers almost continuously. The inflorescence type is a spike. The semi-erect inflorescence is developed at both terminal and axillary positions. The corolla is fan shaped with five petals which are fused at the base and freely touching at the top. Shape of the petals is elliptic with a mucronate shaped apex. There is no pubescence on the upper side of the petals. The petals are violet blue in colour with darker violet in the center zone. The base of the petals is white with yellow stripes.

Origin & Breeding History: 'Newon' is the product of a planned breeding program which took place in Gensingen, Germany. It originated from a cross made in 1990 between the female parent variety 'Blue Wonder', and the male parent, an unidentified proprietary selection of Scaevola aemula identified as 'AU 105'. Selection of 'Newon' was based on compact, freely branching plant growth habit and early flowering.

Tests & Trials: Tests and Trials for 'Newon' were conducted in a polyhouse at BioFlora Inc., St. Thomas, Ontario during the summer of 2002. The trial included 15 plants each of the candidate and reference varieties. Rooted cuttings were transplanted into and grown in 15 cm pots. All colour characteristics were determined using the 2001 Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) Colour Chart and measured characteristics were based on 10 measurements.

Comparison tables for 'Newon' with reference variety 'Purple Fan'

Leaf blade width (cm)

Number of flowers per inflorescence (cm)

Colour of upper side of petal (RHS)