{"id":142534,"date":"2018-10-16T09:30:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=142534"},"modified":"2018-10-16T12:04:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T16:04:30","slug":"unique-shrub-hybrid-blossoms-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/10\/unique-shrub-hybrid-blossoms-patent\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique Shrub Hybrid Blossoms into Patent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Brand, a professor of horticulture and plant breeding in the University of Connecticut\u2019s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, was recently granted a patent for his specially bred purple-leaf sand cherry. The purple-leaf sand cherry is a hybrid plant from the rose family. In spring, it blooms with an array of delicate light pink flowers and later produces deep burgundy foliage for the summer.<\/p>\n

The problem with typical forms of this attractive shrub is that its size, seven to 10 feet tall, quickly becomes too large to be used effectively in many landscaping situations.<\/p>\n

\"Prunus
Prunus x cistena \u2018UCONNPC001\u2019 (Monrovia Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brand developed a plant that is about half the size of the traditional purple-leaf sand cherry by changing its genetic parentage. The purple-leaf sand cherry is a hybrid of two different plants. Brand swapped one of its parent plants out with a smaller version of it that is accustomed to growing in a more restricted area. This switch resulted in a more compact and manageable plant.<\/p>\n

The new cross maintains the same aesthetic elements as the traditional plant as well as being easy to manage and grow with minimal care.<\/p>\n

Brand\u2019s plant also has dense branching down to the ground which prevents it from becoming too \u201cleggy\u201d or open at the bottom, which detracts from its ornamental appeal.<\/p>\n

The plant has been coined \u201cDarkstar\u201d by Monrovia Nurseries which has the license for Brand\u2019s invention.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers across the country are looking for plants that fit their lifestyles. Prunus DarkStar\u00ae fits this criteria will its smaller more refined size, making pruning, care and placement in a smaller yard so much easier,\u201d says Jonathan Pedersen, vice president of business development & IP at Monrovia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new purple-leaf sand cherry should be a popular plant with consumers because it is easy to grow, compact in stature and offers multi-season interest through its light pink spring flowers and red summer foliage,\u201d says Brand.<\/p>\n

With assistance from technology transfer experts within UConn\u2019s Office of the Vice President for Research, Brand has received several other plant patents.<\/p>\n

Brand received his PhD from the Ohio State University. He is currently working on breeding new varieties of aroniaberry, a new nutraceutical crop, as well as improved forms of native shrub species for the northeast region of the United States.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow UConn Research on <\/em>Twitter<\/a><\/em> & LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn horticulturalist, Mark Brand, has produced a new hybrid of the popular purple-leaf sand cherry that maintains desirable aesthetic elements of the traditional plant while also being easier to manage and grow with minimal care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":63919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,2076],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-142534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-research"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-20 00:04:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/63919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142534"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=142534"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=142534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}