Avocado tree named ‘Eugenin’
The ‘Eugenin’ avocado variety is notable for its larger fruit size and seed size, than that of the ‘Hass’ variety.
Latin name of the genus and species: Persea americana Mill.
Varietal denomination: ‘Eugenin’.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONCurrently, the main avocado variety grown in the word is ‘Hass’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 139, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference). The main markets have year-round supply of ‘Hass’ avocados and end consumers are very used to buying ‘Hass’. Many other avocado varieties have been created and patented in the last twenty years, but none of them has been able to obtain important interest from growers. The main reason for the lack of interest is that the market still prefers ‘Hass’.
Avocado fruit size is one of the major issues that growers of most production areas face when growing ‘Hass’ avocados. The grower's net return can be doubled when prices from small fruit and big fruit (+200 grams) are compared. There are varieties, such as Esther (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,309), that solve the fruit size problem. However, the skin of the fruit is green and the market has no major interest in it.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION‘Eugenin’ is a new and distinct variety of avocado tree Persea americana Mill. The ‘Eugenin’ variety was first discovered in 1997 by Mr. Javier Eugenin, who noted a tree in his cultivated avocado orchard located in Hijuelas, in the Aconcagua Valley in Chile. The tree was discovered after observing through several years that its fruit size was consistently higher than the ‘Hass’ trees from the orchard. After several evaluations, it was determined that the ‘Eugenin’ tree consistently produced larger fruit than ‘Hass’ trees.
The ‘Eugenin’ discovered tree is presumed to be a mutated bud (it is a whole tree mutation) from a spontaneous mutation of ‘Hass’. Budwood from the originally discovered ‘Eugenin’ mother tree was grafted into new trees, which were planted in January 2000, as a non-propagation trial in Nogales, Chile. It has since been observed to remain true to type and the material and mutation is stable. The tree was discovered, after observing through several years, that the fruit size was consistently larger than corresponding ‘Hass’ trees.
The accompanying photographs show specimens of the tree and plant parts of the new ‘Eugenin’ variety.
The following is a detailed botanical description of the ‘Eugenin’ variety, sometimes referred to by the code names Andes 4 or GAMA 4021 by the breeder.
The following detailed botanical description is based on observations of trees which were grafted budwood from the ‘Eugenin’ mother tree (
The ‘Eugenin’ tree presents a spreading growth habit, as illustrated in
With respect to the fruit, as shown in
The ‘Eugenin’ variety has a slight early flowering as compared to ‘Hass’. The ‘Eugenin’ variety flowering tends to be higher than ‘Hass’, and reaches a peak approximately a week before ‘Hass’. The end of the flowering period for ‘Eugenin’ is approximately a week before ‘Hass’.
The time of fruit maturity for harvesting is late, similar to ‘Hass’, in that the ‘Eugenin’ variety reaches or exceeds the minimum harvest maturity (23% dry matter) almost at the same time as that of ‘Hass’.
More particularly, the main botanical characteristics of ‘Eugenin’ are as follows:
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- Tree growth habit.—Spreading.
- Young shoot color.—Reddish.
- Leaf blade anise aroma.—Absent or weak.
- Flowering type.—A.
- Mature fruit length.—Short (as Edranol).
- Mature fruit diameter.—Small (as Edranol).
- Mature fruit ratio length/diameter.—Small (as Edranol).
- Mature fruit surface.—Rough.
- Pedicel (thickness compared to peduncle at junction).—Thicker.
- Pedicel (length).—Long.
- Pedicel (shape).—Cylindrical.
- Pedicel (nailhead): Absent.
- Ripe fruit (color).—Dark Purple or Black.
- Ripe fruit (thickness of skin).—Moderately thick.
- Seed (shape in longitudinal section).—Ovate.
- Color of youngest flush (not active).—Pantone 376 C.
- Color of 1 year old branch.—Pantone 374 C.
- Color of main branches.—Pantone 7495 C.
- Color of lenticels.—Pantone 361 C.
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- Mature Leaf:
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- Upper side color.—Pantone 363 C.
- Lower side color.—Pantone 577 C.
- Glossiness of upper side.—Medium.
- Prominence of veins of lower side.—Prominent Central Vein.
- Veins.—Asymmetric.
- Color of main trunk.—Pantone 5825 C.
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- Limb:
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- Shape.—Elliptic.
- Apex shape.—Acuminate.
- Leaf torsion in all length.—Absent.
- Torsion of apex.—Absent.
- Leaf border undulation.—Very weak.
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The following is a description of the ‘Eugenin’ variety compared with the standard avocado variety ‘Hass’ during the evaluation process.
Claims
1. A new and distinct variety of avocado tree, substantially as illustrated and described herein.
PP139 | August 1935 | Hass |
PP9530 | April 30, 1996 | Salas |
PP11173 | January 4, 2000 | Vega |
PP17947 | August 28, 2007 | Darvas |
PP23885 | September 10, 2013 | Pflum |
PP24279 | March 4, 2014 | Menge et al. |
- UPOV PLUTO Citation for ‘Eugenin’ 2007.
- Arpaia, M. “Enhancement of Avocado Productivity” 2008 Production Research Report California Avocado Commission 2008.
- Chen, H. et al. “Tracing the Geographic Origins of Major Avocado Cultivars.” Journal of Heredity 2009:100(1) 56-65 Sep. 8, 2008.
- Gardiazabal, F. et al. “Evaluaction De Dos Nuevas Variedades De Paltos (Persea americana Mill.) Similares Al. Cv. Hass Obtenidas en Chile” Proceedings VI World Avocado Congress 2007 Nov. ISBN 978-956-17-0413-8.
- Alcaraz, M. et al. Moleculart Chareacterization and Genetic Diversity in an avocado collectiono of cultivars and local Spanish genotypes using SSRs Hereditase 144: 244-253 (2007).
- Francisco Gardiazabal I. et al.; Evaluation of Two New Hass Type Varieties Found in Chile; 11 pages; 2007.
- Michael T. Clegg et al.; Assessing the Genetic Determination of Valuable Avocado Traits . . . ; 2007 Production Research Report, California Avocado Commission; 5 pages.
Type: Grant
Filed: Jul 12, 2012
Date of Patent: Jun 23, 2015
Patent Publication Number: 20140020142
Assignee: Corretajes Percit LTDA. (Quillota)
Inventor: Javier Eugenin (Hijuelas)
Primary Examiner: Kent L Bell
Application Number: 13/507,592