Some articles that I have written or significantly contributed to are:
The D-6[16] was built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia, Pa., but her design[24] was sufficiently different to separate her from the other five D-class airships. It featured a further improved control car (the "D-1 Enclosed Cabin Car) which had a water tight bottom for landings on water and internal fuel tanks. The D-6[16] was burned in the Naval Air Station Rockaway hangar fire[17] of 31 August 1921 along with two small dirigibles, the C-10 and the H-1 and the kit balloon A-P.
Plant patents PP12, PP13, PP14, PP15, PP16, PP18, PP41, PP65, PP66, PP235, PP266, PP267, PP269, PP290, PP291 and PP1041 were issued to Burbank posthumously.
The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding of tomatoes which ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a variety in the mid 20th century which ripened uniformly which was then widely cross-bred to produce attractive red fruit without the typical green ring surrounding the stem on uncross-bred varieties. Prior to general introduction of this trait tomatoes were able to produce more sugar during the process of ripening and were sweeter and more flavorful.[25][26]
In the 1930’s the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) at Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station, in Cheyenne Wyoming was conducting research, under the direction of Dr. Myron F. Babb Ph.D., on the growing vegetables under extreme environmental conditions. Tomatoes were one of the research vegetables and during the curse of the research it was discovered that tomatoes with the mutant gene for “Uniform Color” (i.e. Uniform Ripening Factor) were less susceptible to environmental extremes and more likely to produce a crop, even when grow by amateur gardeners. In the 1930’s the Cheyenne Station produced many lines of tomatoes with the “Uniform Color” gene. The source for this mutant gene was the heirloom verities: “Danmark Tomato” and “Globe Tomato” which were obtained from Norway and the Colorado in the United States respectively.
Babb obtained, through the USDA Division of Foreign Plant Introductions, a number of varieties that matured considerably earlier, although their fruit size and yields were less than the standard varieties. H. O. Werner at the agricultural experiment substation in North Platte worked jointly with Babb, most notably on the Danmark tomato variety obtained from a seed company in Grimstad, Norway. Danmark proved among the best varieties in setting fruit under extreme climatic conditions and the earliest variety to produce fruit acceptable for the commercial market. In addition, by importing relatively hardy varieties from places such as Siberia and pollinating them with the more common varieties, Babb and his successors managed to breed and release three new varieties ̶ Alpine, Colorado Red, and Highlander ̶ of which only the last is still available. … With the coming of World War II, station staff accelerated cooperative efforts to discover and recommend vegetables that did best, especially in Victory Gardens.
Many cold-hardy Hibiscus cultivars are hybridsofHibiscus moscheutos, Hibiscus coccineus, Hibiscus laevis, Hibiscus militaris and Hibiscus palustris with indeterminate genetic contributions from each parent species. One source of information on these hybrids are Plant Patents. A search of Google Patents for Plant Patents referencing Hibiscus moscheutos identifies the ancestry of many popular cultivars of Hibiscus moscheutos. On interest is that the ancestry of un-patented but popular cultivars such as Lord Baltimore are identified in the patent of its progeny Lady Baltimore. While Hibiscus militaris and Hibiscus palustris are both referenced in Plant Patents, Hibiscus militaris is now classified as a sub-speciesofHibiscus laevis and Hibiscus palustris is classified as a sub-speciesofHibiscus moscheutos. Because some Plant Patents reference the historic species name, they will be used here to facilitate searching.
A carful reading of the plant patents reviles that Hibiscus breeders do not provide extensive details of their breeding strategies which could cover several decades when applying for a plant patent. Generally an outline of the breeding history of the seed and pollen parents and grandparents is provided, together with their breeding objectives, which can be quite useful. Hibiscus breeders do not preclude the possibility of open or self pollination. However, recent research[27] has show that artificial pollination just after the Hibiscus flower has opened using a high pollen load will ensure that most of the resulting seeds are from the selected pollen parent. Early Hibiscus breeders were likely aware of this from their experience with Hibiscus and other flowering plants and used it to their advantage.
Plant Patent Searches by Cold-hardy Hibiscus Species:
Compared to their cold-hardy North American cousins the tropical Hibiscus rosa-sinensisofEast Asia, which are also known as the Chinese hibiscus or China Rose, are the high fashion models of the Hibiscus world but don’t ask these delicate betties to venture north of USDA Zone 10. It has long been the dream of Hibiscus breeders to combine the best qualities of the East Asian and North American Hibiscus but that dream has proven elusive until recently. If one searches the Plant Patents for references to Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and any of the North American Hibiscus species, the following results are obtained.
Unfortunately the first thirteen (13) patents from 1994 through 2001 are false positives in that they compare Hibiscus rosa-sinensis with the North American Hibiscus species but don’t use Hibiscus rosa-sinensis for breeding. The three plant patents issued from 2002 are true hybrids between Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Hibiscus moscheutos, Hibiscus coccineus and Hibiscus laevis and were issued to Fleming's Flower Fields using the trademark TROPICAL-HARDY ™. In the three plant patents the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis hybrids are reported to be cold-hardy to -30ºF (-34ºC).The next Google Plant Patent search just finds the hybrids registered from 2002.
A new age of cold-hardy Hibiscus cultivars is dawning for the lowly Swamp-rose Mallow.
Directions for Viewing GIF Animations in Windows IE.
Modern tomato...varieties are bred for uniform ripening (u) light green fruit phenotypes to facilitate harvests of evenly ripened fruit. U encodes a...factor...which determines chlorophyll accumulation and distribution in developing fruit. [The factor] influences photosynthesis in developing fruit, contributing to mature fruit characteristics and suggesting that selection of u inadvertently compromised ripe fruit quality in exchange for desirable production traits.
