Petunia Cultivar Trailing Habit and Flower Size

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing Petunia cultivars lack a combination of freely branching, trailing growth habit, large and attractive flowers, and a long flowering period, which limits their garden performance and adaptability to varying environmental conditions.

Innovation Solution

A new Petunia×hybrida cultivar, 'Sunsurf Aotatsu', bred through cross-pollination of proprietary selections Px5077-01 and Px107-5B, exhibiting a trailing and decumbent plant habit, vigorous growth, early and continuous flowering, and large dark violet-colored flowers, with stable reproduction through terminal cuttings.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If existing Petunia cultivars are used, then they have basic flowering capability, but they lack a combination of freely branching habit, trailing growth, large flowers, and long flowering period

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecombination of growth habit and flowering characteristicsVSAvoidgarden performance consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines multiple desirable traits (freely branching habit, trailing growth, large flower size, and long flowering period) into a single cultivar through controlled cross-pollination breeding, creating a unified plant that exhibits all these characteristics simultaneously rather than requiring separate cultivars for each trait

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Adaptability or versatility

If new cultivars are developed through breeding, then unique characteristics are achieved, but stability of reproduction across generations must be ensured

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveunique plant characteristicsVSAvoidgenetic stability

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The patent employs terminal cuttings for asexual reproduction, allowing the plant to propagate itself true-to-type without genetic variation. This self-service propagation method ensures that the unique characteristics developed through breeding are stably inherited across generations, eliminating the need for repeated cross-pollination to maintain the cultivar

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

3Reliability

If plants are bred for specific traits, then those traits are enhanced, but adaptability to varying environmental conditions must be maintained

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetrait expression consistencyVSAvoidenvironmental tolerance

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent observes and documents that the plant's phenotype can vary somewhat with environmental conditions (temperature and light intensity) without genotype variance, indicating that the cultivar has been bred to maintain genetic stability while allowing natural phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental parameter changes

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUSPP25217P2<i>Petunia </i>plant named ‘Sunsurf Aotatsu’

Publication Date: 2015.01.06 SUNTORY FLOWERS

AI summary

A new and distinct cultivar of Petunia plant named ‘Sunsurf Aotatsu’, characterized by its trailing and decumbent plant habit; vigorous growth habit; freely branching habit; early and freely flowering habit; long flowering period; large dark violet-colored flowers; and good garden performance.