USDA Grants Protection to 12 New Plant Varieties

"A certificate of protection is awarded to an owner of a crop variety after an examination shows that it is new, distinct from other varieties, and genetically uniform and stable through successive generations," said Administrator Rayne Pegg, U.S. Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). "The public benefits as the recipient of lower prices from increased productivity, and from quality food, feed, fiber and other products, that result directly from improved plant varieties."

The certificates of protection were recently issued to the developers by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to 12 new varieties:

• Wildhorse variety of Kentucky bluegrass, developed by Blue Mt. Seeds, Inc. and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Imbler, Oregon;
• Winter Blue variety of Kentucky bluegrass, developed by Pure-Seed Testing, Inc., Hubbard, Ore.;
• Greystone II and LS 1010 varieties of tall fescue, developed by NexGen Turf Research, LLC, Albany, Oregon;
• S-325* variety of safflower, developed by California Oils Corporation, Woodland, California.;
• Tulsa Time variety of tall fescue, developed by NexGen Turf Research, LLC, Albany, Oregon.;
• CW 3268-OL variety of safflower, developed by Cal/West Seeds, Woodland, California.; and
• R89DMR, R110DMR, OB724, IR157DMR, IOB1178DMR, varieties of sunflower, developed by NIDERA S.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina.