USPP28021P3 - Grapevine named ‘FLEURTAI’ - Google Patents

Abstract

A new and distinct variety of grapevine plant named ‘FLEURTAI’, primarily adapted to the growing conditions of the temperate regions and characterized by its strong vigor; erect growth habit; small to medium circular shaped leaves with medium texture; medium sized berry clusters with golden-green berries that have an amber nuance on the sunny side of the berry, soft flesh, neutral taste, and no flesh coloration primarily used for wine; early harvesting time; and resistance to winter temperatures (to −23° C.), resistance to downy mildew, and tolerance to powdery mildew.

Description

Latin name of the genus and species of the plant claimed: Vitis×vinifera (hybrid).

Variety name: ‘FLEURTAI’.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct summer/fall bearing grapevine variety, botanically known as Vitis vinifera, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘FLEURTAI’.

The new grapevine ‘FLEURTAI’ is a product of a controlled breeding program conducted by the inventors in Udine, Italy. The objective of the breeding program was to develop a new grapevine variety particularly characterized by resistance to cold (<−20° C.), resistance to downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola), and tolerance to powdery mildew (Uncinula necator).

The new grapevine ‘FLEURTAI’ originated from a cross made by the inventors in Udine, Italy. The female or seed parent is the grapevine variety, Vitis vinifera cv. ‘Tocai Friulano’ (unpatented), and the male or pollen parent is the grapevine variety, Vitis cv. ‘20/3’ (Bianca×SK77-4/5) (unpatented).

The new grapevine ‘FLEURTAI’ was discovered and selected by the inventors as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in 2002 in Udine, Italy. Asexual reproduction of the new grapevine variety by grafting was first performed in February 2004 in Rauscedo, Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Italy, and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction. The new cultivar reproduces true to type.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

‘FLEURTAI’ is primarily adapted to the climate and growing conditions of the temperate regions with average yearly temperature about 13° C., minimum winter temperature about −20° C., annual rainfall around 700-1500 mm of rain (e.g. North-Eastern Italy, Friuli). This region provides the necessary year-round temperatures required for it to produce and maintain a strong vigorous plant with consistent fruit production from April through November on primocanes and in the ensuing year from April through November on the floricanes.

The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be unique characteristics of ‘FLEURTAI’, which in combination distinguish this grapevine plant as a new and distinct variety.

• • 1. Strong vigor;
  • 2. Erect growth habit;
  • 3. Small to medium circular shaped leaves with medium to dark green upper surfaces and light green lower surfaces and medium texture;
  • 4. Medium size, loose to medium dense, conical berry clusters with two middle size wings; golden-green color berries with amber nuances on the sunny side of the berry, soft flesh, neutral taste, no flesh coloration; primarily for wine; maturing in late August (Middle Friuli, North-Eastern Italy);
  • 5. Primocanes and floricanes with oblate cross section, brownish color, no lenticels, and short-middle internodes (diameter: 8 mm);
  • 6. Late August harvesting time (Middle Friuli, North-Eastern Italy); and
  • 7. Resistance to winter temperature (−23° C.), resistance to downy mildew, and tolerance to powdery mildew.

Plants of the new grapevine ‘FLEURTAI’ differ from plants of the parents, Vitis vinifera ‘Tocai Friulano’ (unpatented) and Vitis cross ‘20/3’ (unpatented), in the following characteristics described in Table 1.

TABLE 1
Comparison with Parent Varieties

		Female Parent	Male Parent
Charac-	New Cultivar	‘Tocai Friulano’	‘20/3’
teristic	‘FLEURTAI’	(unpatented)	(unpatented)
vigor	strong	strong	medium
growth	erect	semi-erect	semi-erect
habit
leaf	small to medium	medium size,	Medium size,
	size, medium to	light green color	light green color
	dark green color	(upper surface),	(upper surface),
	(upper surface),	green color (lower	green color (lower
	light green color	surface), very few	surface), no hairs
	(lower surface), no	hairs in both	in both surfaces,
	hairs in both	surfaces, circular	wedge-shaped—
	surfaces, circular	shape, medium	kidney-shaped,
	shape, medium	texture	medium texture
	texture
cluster	very low-low	low weight,	low weight,
	weight, conical	conical, with 1-2	conical, with 1-2
	with two middle	wings, dense, berry	wings, medium
	size wings, loose or	skin with green-	dense, berry skin
	medium dense,	yellow color, soft	with green-yellow
	berry skin with	flesh, neutral taste,	color, slightly firm
	golden-green color	no flesh coloration,	flesh, neutral taste,
	with amber nuances	use: wine,	no flesh coloration,
	in the sunny side of	maturity: medium	use: wine,
	berry, soft flesh,	(early September	maturity: early
	neutral taste, no	at Udine, North-	(late August,
	flesh coloration,	Eastern Italy)	Middle Friuli,
	use: wine, maturity:		North-Eastern
	early (late August,		Italy)
	Middle Friuli,
	North-Eastern
	Italy)
primocane	oblate cross	circular cross	oblate cross
and	section, brownish	section, brownish	section, brownish
floricane	color, lenticels:	color, lenticels:	color, lenticels:
	absent, short-	absent, short-	absent, medium
	medium internodes,	medium	internodes,
	diameter: small	internodes,	diameter small
	(about 8 mm)	diameter small 8	(about (about 8
		mm)	mm)
harvesting	early (last decade	Early-medium	Early (end August,
time	August, Middle	(early September,	Middle Friuli,
	Friuli, North-	Middle Friuli,	North-Eastern
	Eastern Italy)	North-Eastern	Italy)
		Italy)
resistances	resistant to winter	Average resistance	resistant to winter
	temperature (−23°	to winter tempera-	temperature not
	C.), resistant to	ture (−15° C.),	checked, resistant
	downy mildew,	susceptible to	to downy mildew,
	tolerant to powdery	downy mildew,	resistant to
	mildew	susceptible to	powdery mildew
		powdery mildew

Of the many commercial cultivars known to the present inventor, the most similar to the new grapevine ‘FLEURTAI’ is the female parent ‘Tocai Friulano’, to which a comparison has been provided above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The accompanying photographs illustrate the overall appearance of the new grapevine ‘FLEURTAI’ showing the colors as true as is reasonably possible with colored reproductions of this type. Colors in the photographs may differ slightly from the color values cited in the detailed botanical description, which accurately describe the color of ‘FLEURTAI’.

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B show a typical fruit cluster of ‘FLEURTAI’ taken on Aug. 25, 2012, in Udine, Italy.

FIG. 2 shows a typical mature leaf (upper surface, left and lower surface, right) of ‘FLEURTAI’ taken on Jun. 15, 2012, in Udine, Italy.

FIG. 3 shows a typical mature vine of ‘FLEURTAI’ taken on Aug. 3, 2012.

FIG. 4 shows a close-up view of typical mature fruit of ‘FLEURTAI’ taken on Aug. 25, 2012, in Udine, Italy

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

The following description of ‘FLEURTAI’ unless otherwise noted, is based on observations taken during the 2011, 2012, and 2013 growing seasons(s) in Udine, Italy and Fossalon di Grado (GO), Italy, from plants dug from a nursery located in Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo, Rauscedo (PN), Italy during the beginning of December 2007 and planted approximately 16 to 20 weeks later in Udine, Italy and Fossalon di Grado (GO), Italy. The phenotypical descriptions and color designations stated for the new variety may vary, depending upon variations in environmental factors, including weather (temperature, humidity and light intensity), day length, soil type, location and cultural conditions. ‘FLEURTAI’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions.

		‘TOCAI FRIULANO’
Characteristic	‘FLEURTAI’	(unpatented)
GENERAL
Resistance to	Resistant to downy	Susceptible to downy
pest/disease	mildew, tolerant to	mildew and to powdery
	powdery mildew	mildew
Resistance to natural	Resistant to winter cold	Resistant to winter cold
elements	down to −23° C.	down to −15° C.
VINE
Vigor	strong	strong
Trunk diameter	6 cm (6 yrs.-old plant)	6.5
Bark
color	RHS 177B	Dark brown
underbark color	RHS 179B	Light brown
texture	n.a.	n.a.
Canes
length	Internode length cm 10.5	Internode length about
		cm 10
width	8 mm	8 mm
Shoots
shape	Erected, cross section:	Semi-erected, cross
	oblate, surface: with	section: circular,
	stripes, nodes and	surface: smooth, nodes
	internodes without hairs	and internodes without
		hairs
color	internodes with red (RHS	Internodes with green
	185B) and green	color on ventral and
	(RHS144B) pigmentation	dorsal side, nodes with
	on both sides, nodes with	green ventral and dorsal
	red (RHS 185B) and green	side
	(RHS144B) dorsal side
	and green (RHS144B)
	ventral side
Tendrils
form	Bifid or trifid	bifid
color	RHS 145C	Green
texture	normal	normal
number
	2 or <2 consecutive	2 or <2 consecutive
Buds
size	average	average
shape	round	round
color	RHS 139C	Light brown
number
	2/node	2/node
time of budbreak	early	early-medium
LEAVES
Size	small-medium	medium
Number of leaflets	5	5
Glossiness	Medium-high	medium
Cross section shape	V-shaped	V-shaped
Color (immature)
Upper surface	RHS 140B	Light green
Under surface	RHS 140B	green
Color (mature)
Upper surface	RHS 141A	Medium green
Under surface	RHS 141B	Darker green
Petiole
Length (cm)	6.2	6.0
Color (upper surface)	RHS 145C	green
Color (under surface)	RHS 145C and RHS180A	green
Stipule orientation	n.a.	n.a.
FLOWERS
Flowering period	End of May	End of May
(time of beginning of
flowering)
Sex	hermaphrodite	hermaphrodite
Size	Average	average
Diameter (cm)	0.3 (stamens)	0.3 (stamens)
Pistil Color	RHS 149A
Stamen Color	RHS 4D
Fragrance	average	average
Flower number (at	n.a.	n.a.
3rd node from tip of
lateral mean and
range)
Petals
Length (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Width (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Overall shape	calyptra	calyptra
Calyptra Color	RHS 134A	green
Sepals
Length (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Width (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Overall shape	n.a.	n.a.
Color (immature)	n.a.	n.a.
Upper surface
Under surface
Color (mature)	n.a.	n.a.
Upper surface
Under surface
Pedicel
Length (mm)	45 (cluster)	70
Color	RHS 145C	green
FRUIT
Primocane time of	August 25th	September 7th
fruiting (1st pick)
Clusters
cluster weight	g 170	g 230
cluster shape	conical	conical
cluster length	mm 180	medium
avg. berries per	200	220
cluster
avg. clusters per	2	2
shoot
Berries
Berry size	Very low to low (g 1.8)	Very low to low (g 1.5)
Berry length (cm)	1.76	1.50
Berry width (cm)	1.56	1.50
Overall shape of	broad ellipsoid	globose
berry
Berry Texture	soft	soft
Berry Skin Color	RHS 137C	green
(immature)
Berry Skin Color	RHS 4D	green
(mature, at 19° Bx)
Berry Flesh Color	RHS 149D
Soluble solids (%)	22.6	21.1
Titratable acidity (as
g/L tartaric acid)	4.6	5.7
Sugar/acid ratio	4.9	3.7
Firmness	soft	soft
Seeds	2-3	2-3
Seed color	RHS 166C
Skin cracking?	no	rarely
Juice color	transparent	transparent
Berry taste	Neutral	neutral
Eating quality	n.a.	n.a.
Berry uses	wine	wine
Shipping quality	n.a.	n.a.

Claims (1)

What is claimed is:

1. A new and distinct grapevine, referred to as ‘FLEURTAI’, as herein described and illustrated by the characteristics set forth above.

Images