Coreopsis Electric Sunshine Hybrid Breeding for Continuous Blooming
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Coreopsis cultivars lack continuous blooming throughout summer and sufficient growth vigor, with limited options for varieties combining mounded growth habits and specific inflorescence characteristics.
Innovation Solution
The development of the Coreopsis hybrid cultivar 'Electric Sunshine' through controlled breeding, which exhibits medium yellow inflorescences with a burgundy-red eye zone, medium green foliage, and a vigorous, mounded growth habit, achieved through cross-pollination between proprietary Coreopsis rosea and pubescens selections, ensuring consistent asexual reproduction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If existing Coreopsis cultivars are used, then they have established growth habits and inflorescence characteristics, but they lack continuous blooming throughout summer and sufficient growth vigor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines two different Coreopsis species (Coreopsis rosea and Coreopsis pubescens) through cross-pollination to create a hybrid cultivar that merges the continuous blooming capability of one parent with the growth vigor of the other, achieving both prolonged flowering and consistent vigor that neither parent possessed alone
Solution Approach 2:
The breeding program systematically varied breeding parameters including selecting specific parent plants with complementary traits, controlling pollination timing, and selecting progeny with optimal combinations of blooming duration and growth vigor, thereby optimizing the hybrid cultivar's performance
2Shape
If Coreopsis cultivars with mounded growth habits are selected, then they have compact form, but they lack the specific inflorescence characteristics of yellow flowers with burgundy eye zones
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by preserving the mounded growth habit (overall plant shape) from one parent while introducing the specific yellow ray floret with burgundy eye zone coloration from the other parent, creating a cultivar with differentiated local characteristics that satisfy both requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The breeding program used feedback by evaluating progeny plants for both mounded growth habit and inflorescence color characteristics, selecting only those plants that exhibited both the desired shape and color traits for further propagation, ensuring trait consistency
3Adaptability or versatility
If cross-pollination between proprietary selections is performed, then new cultivar characteristics are achieved, but reproductive fidelity must be maintained through asexual propagation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by establishing asexual propagation protocols immediately after discovering the desired cultivar characteristics in the hybrid progeny, creating certified propagating material before the cultivar is widely distributed, thereby ensuring reproductive fidelity is maintained from the outset
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying by producing identical clones of the selected hybrid plant through asexual propagation methods such as tissue culture or cuttings, creating multiple copies that perfectly replicate the unique combination of traits without genetic variation
Data Source
AI summary
A new and distinct cultivar of Coreopsis plant named ‘Electric Sunshine’, characterized by its single-type, medium yellow-colored inflorescences having a burgundy-red colored eye zone, medium green-colored foliage, and vigorous, mounded growth habit, is disclosed.