Marleen

Snowberry

Variety Description

Variety used for comparison: 'Mother of Pearl'

Summary: The plants of 'Marleen' are broader than those of 'Mother of Pearl'. 'Marleen' has larger fruit diameter than 'Mother of Pearl'. The fruit of 'Marleen' are whitish becoming violet only on the surfaces exposed to the sun while those of 'Mother of Pearl' are pink becoming pure white as they mature.

Description:

'Marleen' is a shrub type, vegetatively propagated snowberry variety with an upright, bushy and arching growth habit. The stems are light, gray brown with moderate to dense pubescence. The leaves are simple and their arrangement on the stems is opposite. The leaf blades are elliptic in shape with an acute apex, obtuse base and sinuate margin. Pubescence of the leaf blade is absent to very sparse on the upper side and very sparse on the lower side. The upper side of the leaf blade is medium green with no variegation. There is a petiole present.

Flowering for 'Marleen' begins mid-season, occurs once per growing season and lasts a moderate length of time. The inflorescence is a very short spike positioned in terminal locations on the branches. The attitude of the flowers is drooping. The fruit is white becoming violet only on the surfaces exposed to the sun.

Origin & Breeding History: 'Marleen' is a chance seedling of Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii Krüssm. 'Mother of Pearl' discovered at Arisz Bloemisterijprodukten, Beverwijk, The Netherlands in 1989. Evaluation of the plant took place from 1989 to 1994. Evaluation of vegetative propagation from 'Marleen' was conducted with the first cuttings during the summer of 1994 and the first plants from these cuttings were obtained in January 1995.

Tests & Trials: The test and trial for 'Marleen' was conducted outdoors at Variety Rights Management, Oxford Station, Ontario during the summer/fall of 2004. The trial consisted of 15 plants of each variety. The candidate variety was grown in 30 cm pots and the reference variety was grown in 25 cm pots. All colour characteristics were determined using the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Colour Chart (1995 green box edition) and measured characteristics were based on ten measurements.

Comparison tables for 'Marleen' with reference variety 'Mother of Pearl'

Plant width (cm)

Fruit diameter (mm)

Colour of fruit (RHS)