St. Augustine grass plant named ‘NUF-76’
Perennial St. Augustinegrass having plant hopper and southern chinch bug insect resistance, narrow leaf blades and slower leaf extension rates over time when compared with other St. Augustinegrass varieties thus requiring less frequent mowing.
Latest Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. Patents:
Genus and species: Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze
Variety denomination: NUF-76
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to a new and distinct St. Augustinegrass that is the result of a complex hybridization program to develop a dark green, fine bladed St. Augustinegrass. Parents were selected for darker green foliage color, narrow leaf width, low maintenance and resistance to common insect pests and disease. This genotype was first labeled as FA 1997-108 and evaluated as NUF-76. This selection was propagated vegetatively to provide planting stock for studying performance and distinguishing NUF-76 from other St. Augustinegrass cultivars. The St. Augustinegrass ‘NUF-76’ has been asexually propagated through vegetative cuttings of stolons in Florida beginning in 2005.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONThis application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent, application number 60/879,996 filed Jan. 10, 2007.
SUMMARY OF INVENTIONNUF-76 is a fine bladed, dark green St. Augustinegrass, Stenotaphrum secundatum that is resistant to the southern chinch bug, Blissus insularis and the plant hopper, Liburnia pseudoseminigra. NUF-76 has slow leaf extension growth rates that result in the need for reduced frequency of mowing, there by saving on fuel necessary for lawn maintenance and for wear and tear of the lawn mower.
Insect and Disease Resistance
NUF-76 is resistant to two common insect pests, the southern chinch bug, Blissus insularis and the plant hopper (Tables 1 and 2). NUF 76 is the first St. Augustinegrass known to the inventor reported to have resistance to the plant hopper, Liburnia pseudoseminigra. Plant hoppers feeding solely on NUF-76 survive 3.2 days on average compared with susceptible host plants in which they survived 11.2 or more days. Reproduction occurred on the susceptible host Classic and Palmetto, as evident by nymph production.
NUF-76 is resistant to all tested populations of southern chinch bugs from the state of Florida, including those that kill Floratam. For many southern chinch bug populations, mortality on NUF-76 was 100% within the 14 day test period. Chinch bug survival was significantly higher for Floratam and Floratine. Mortality on NUF-76 was similar to FX-10 and NUF-216, both selections having large leaves compared to NUF-76.
Leaf Extension Rate
Leaf extension rate of NUF-76 was always shorter than all other St. Augustinegrass varieties known to the inventor, but was always statistically equal to Seville. Leaf extension rate of NUF-76 was equal to Seville and FX-10 and significantly less than NUF-216 and Floratam seven days after mowing. At 14 days after mowing, leaf growth was similar to Seville and FX-10. NUF-76 was half the height of Floratam and 60% the height of NUF-216. Three weeks after mowing, leaf growth of NUF-76 averaged 7.6 cm which was similar to Seville and 2.5 times shorter than Floratam. NUF-76 is shorter after 21 days of growth, than Floratam after 7 days. Using cultivars with slower leaf extension rates such as NUF-76 can reduce the frequency of mowing, thereby reducing the amount of fuel required to maintain a lawn and also reduce wear and tear of the mower. In a state such as Florida where more than 4 million acres of turfgrass is managed, elimination of a single mowing will result in significant fuel savings.
Leaf Morphology
Unmowed NUF-76 has significantly shorter, narrowest, and smallest leaf area of comparison St. Augustinegrass cultivars. These reduced leaf characteristics result in NUF-76 appearance to be a fine leaf textured St. Augustinegrass with a dense and compact canopy. NUF-76 average leaf length measured 106.5 mm and a width of 6.7 mm. These measurements resulted in average leaf area of 62.6 square mm, 68% the area of its closest comparison variety.
Reproductive Structures
Inflorescences of NUF-76 are terminal and auxiliary, averaging 1.85 panicles per flowering culm. Mean spike length of NUF-76 is 97.75 mm, equal in shortness to 1997-6 and shorter than other cultivars. Floral region measurements averaged 57.35 mm for NUF-76 which was shorter than all cultivars known to the inventor except for FX-10. Spiklet or seed number per inflorescence was 25, equal to Floratam, Seville and Raleigh for the lowest number. Stigmas are white and anther sac color is yellow.
Growth and Ground Coverage
Growth of NUF-76 lateral shoots was equal to other cultivars at 6 weeks from transplanting rooted cutting into the field. However, at 9 weeks lateral shoot lengths of NUF-76 was the shortest. Internode counts however did not differ among cultivars and reduce lateral length was attributed to shorter internodes. As a result, ground coverage during grow-in after sprigging or plugging a new field by NUF-76 was slowest for all cultivars tested. Starting with 3% coverage by the grass plug, mean coverage by NUF-76 was 27.8% after eight weeks. By 16 weeks of growth, all cultivars had 96% ground coverage or better indicating that coverage by NUF-76 will catch up to the other cultivars and coverage approach 100%.
Claims
1. A new and distinct variety of grass plant as herein described and illustrated.
PP7699 | October 29, 1991 | Busey |
PP7852 | April 7, 1992 | Busey |
20090199316 | August 6, 2009 | Philley et al. |
20090293164 | November 26, 2009 | Philley et al. |
- Mickie Anderson. UF turfgrass researchers release slow-grow low-mow grass—and it's pretty. University of Florida News Jun. 4, 2007. available at: http://news.ufl.edu/2007/06/04/slow-grass/.
- Rangasamy, M. et al Categories of Resistance in St. Augustinegrass Lines to Southern Chinch Bug (Hemiptera: Blissidate) Plant Resistance J. Econ. Entomol. 99(4): 1446-1451 (2006).
- Cherry et al. Southern Chinch Bug (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) Survival on St. Augustinegrass Selections. Journal of Entomological Science. vol. 39, No. 4 (Oct. 2004).
Type: Grant
Filed: Aug 8, 2007
Date of Patent: Sep 7, 2010
Patent Publication Number: 20080184441
Assignee: Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. (Greenwood, FL)
Inventors: Russell T. Nagata (Belle Glade, FL), Philip Busey (Davie, FL)
Primary Examiner: Wendy C. Haas
Attorney: Jondle & Associates, P.C.
Application Number: 11/890,834
International Classification: A01H 5/00 (20060101);