Heucherella Redstone Falls Trailing Habit and Foliage Color
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for a new Heucherella cultivar that combines trailing growth habit, distinct foliage colors, and robust vigor, while being adaptable to both full sun and filtered shade, which existing Heucherella varieties do not adequately provide.
Innovation Solution
The development of Heucherella 'Redstone Falls', a unique cultivar resulting from a controlled cross between Heuchera 909-2 and Tiarella, characterized by peachy orange to rust red leaves, dark venation patterns, large palmately lobed leaves, and excellent vigor, achieved through asexual propagation techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a new Heucherella cultivar is developed to combine trailing growth habit, distinct foliage colors, and robust vigor, then the plant's adaptability and aesthetic value are improved, but the complexity of breeding and propagation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the trailing growth habit from Tiarella parent with the foliage color characteristics from Heuchera parent to create a new Heucherella cultivar that exhibits both trailing growth and distinct peachy orange to rust red foliage colors, thereby merging desirable traits from two different species to achieve enhanced adaptability and aesthetic value
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs asexual propagation methods (division and tissue culture) to create genetically identical copies of the selected parent plants, ensuring that the desirable traits of trailing growth habit and distinct foliage colors are consistently reproduced across multiple plants without the complexity of repeated breeding cycles
2Shape
If Heucherella cultivars are bred to exhibit distinct foliage colors and trailing growth, then aesthetic value is improved, but disease tolerance may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent selects for specific local qualities in the parent plants - the Tiarella parent contributes trailing growth habit and the Heuchera parent contributes peachy orange to rust red foliage colors with dark venation patterns. By focusing selection on these specific local qualities rather than attempting to improve all traits simultaneously, the breeding process maintains disease tolerance while achieving the desired aesthetic characteristics
Data Source
AI summary
A new and distinct Heucherella plant substantially as shown and described, characterized by its trailing habit, spring leaves of peachy orange with a slight white veil to summer and winter leaves of purple red to brown to olive green, a dark pattern on the veins, large palmately lobed leaves, and excellent vigor. Heucherella ‘Redstone Falls’ grows equally well in full sun or filtered shade in the Pacific Northwest.