Hibiscus Copper Queen Cold Hardiness Hybridization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for a hardy, compact, and floriferous Hibiscus cultivar that can thrive in extreme environments and maintain its unique characteristics through asexual propagation, offering improved resistance to disease and insects, as well as adaptability to varying environmental conditions.
Innovation Solution
The 'Copper Queen' Hibiscus, resulting from a 50-year breeding program combining Hibiscus moscheutos and Hibiscus coccineus, exhibits refined foliage, vibrant flower colors, and exceptional hardiness, with stable compact growth and resistance to disease and insects, achieved through asexual propagation by cuttings and root division.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional Hibiscus breeding methods are used, then genetic diversity is maintained, but achieving consistent hardiness to extreme temperatures and stable disease resistance is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple Hibiscus species (Hibiscus moscheutos and Hibiscus coccineus) through hybridization to create a new cultivar that inherits desirable traits from both parents, including hardiness, disease resistance, and aesthetic qualities. This merging of genetic material from different species resolves the contradiction by achieving consistent reliability through controlled hybridization while maintaining adaptability through the diversity of parental contributions.
2Shape
If the plant is bred for compact growth habit, then landscape utility is improved, but achieving stable compact breaking action through propagation is challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes the compact growth habit and uniform breaking action as fixed genetic characteristics during the breeding process, so that these traits are predetermined and automatically expressed in subsequent generations through asexual propagation. This preliminary establishment of desired traits ensures stability without requiring further intervention, resolving the contradiction between achieving compact shape and maintaining its stability through propagation.
3Reliability
If the plant is bred for enhanced disease and insect resistance, then reliability in extreme environments is improved, but achieving consistent resistance through propagation is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the genetic parameters of the Hibiscus plant through selective breeding and hybridization to incorporate disease and insect resistance traits. By modifying the genetic composition during breeding and then propaging asexually, the resistance traits become fixed and consistent across generations. This resolves the contradiction by using parameter changes in the breeding stage to achieve both enhanced resistance and consistent expression through propagation.
Data Source
AI summary
A new and distinct cultivar of winter hardy Hibiscus plant named ‘Copper Queen’ is the result of a unique hybridization. This new and distinct cultivar is characterized primarily as to its novelty by its extreme cold hardiness to Zone 4, its large thick-textured and heavily streaked flowers of red, pink and white and its ovate to “Maple-shaped” foliage with its reddish-purple coloration, compactness of approximately 2½ feet, its vigorous and uniform breaking habit and its floriferous nature from midsummer until frost.