From Unnamed Patented Poinsettia to ‘Flaming Sphere’ to ‘Winter Rose’™

Summary: California’s Ecke Ranch transforms a sport of a double bract variety from unnamed patented poinsettia to ‘Flaming Sphere’ to ‘Winter Rose’™.

Poinsettia ‘Winter Rose'™, Dec. 1, 2007: miheco, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

The Ecke Ranch of Encinitas, southern California, transformed a sport of Henrietta Ecke, an unpatented double bract variety, from unnamed patented poinsettia to ‘Flaming Sphere’ to ‘Winter Rose’™ over the course of 48 years.

On July 6, 1950, Paul Ecke Jr. (Dec. 14, 1925-May 13, 2002) filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent for an unnamed poinsettia plant. On Dec. 11, 1951, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office assigned plant patent number 1,052 to the inventor’s unnamed poinsettia.

The sport’s origin and discovery took place at the Ecke Ranch in Encinitas. Vegetative propagation via cuttings also occurred at the ranch. Vegetative propagation over more than three years revealed the stability and true reproduction of the sport’s desirable characteristics in several thousand plants. Paul Ecke Jr.’s unnamed patented poinsettia distinguished itself with profuse, ruffly, tortuous, vivid bracts; extremely curled foliar main veins; malformed inflorescences; bract and leaf retention longevity.

Cuttings for propagation may be planted between May and September. November and December are targeted for optimum maturity. The unnamed patented poinsettia retains bracts and foliage into the new year, for two more months. Then the unnamed patented poinsettia enters dormancy for about three months.

The patent application describes the new variety of Euphorbia poinsettia as a persistent perennial with a slow but vigorous growth habit. Proper handling assures easy cultivation.

At maturity, Paul Ecke Jr.’s unnamed patented poinsettia reaches an approximate height of 6 to 8 feet (1.82 to 2.43 meters). Spread, or width, approximates 4 to 5 feet (1.21 to 1.52 meters).

Flower-bearing stalks termed peduncles (Latin: pedunculus, “little foot”) branching from the main stem are stiff and strong. Their color is Scheele’s green, which is a yellowish green. Peduncles have an average length of 4 feet (1.21 meters).

Knoblike spurs or spikes, also termed pedicels (Latin: pediculus, “little foot”), grow at upper ends of peduncles. Pedicels put forth numerous, blood-red bracts.

Sinuously shaped bracts overlap to form densely compacted heads. Bracts in the clustered head’s central portion turn and twist less than circumferential bracts.

Bracts have ruffled edges. Ruffling is more pronounced in bracts at the head’s circumference and less pronounced in bracts in the head’s center.

Leaves extend outward from peduncles in a helical, or spiral, arrangement. Petioles (Latin: petiolus, “little foot, stalk”), which attach leaf blades to peduncles, are unusually thick. Petioles have an arcuate (Latin: arcuatus, “bow-like, arched”) shape. Their color is spinach green.

Leaves also have spinach green coloring. Their shape is irregularly ovate, or egg-shaped.

Paul Ecke Jr.’s unnamed patent poinsettia has pinnate venation. Parallel with each other, small veins branch from the central main vein, which is known as the midrib.

During the leaf’s early maturity, the midrib maintains a substantially straight alignment from base to tip. But with the development of optimum color in the bracts, midribs increasingly curve toward their leaves’ undersides. By the time that bracts begin dropping from their headed cluster, each midrib’s extreme spiral curving draws leaf lobes on opposite sides of the midvein upward. Paul Ecke Jr. describes the effect as “resembling a pair of butter-fly wings.”

Ecke’s unnamed patented poinsettia does not develop normal or substantial inflorescence while bracts are developing and growing. When bracts enter a state of decline, each knoblike pedicel terminally puts forth a malformed perianth, which, as the non-reproductive, outer floral part, normally comprises petals and sepals. Ecke’s poinsettia does not develop the parts that commonly characterize poinsettia varieties. For example, the small, greenish cuplike structure known as a cyathium is missing.

In 1962, about a decade after approval of Paul Ecke Jr.’s patent application, Ecke Ranch’s chief hybridizer, Hungarian-born Franz Fruehwirth began experimenting with the non-traditional-looking poinsettia. The floppy poinsettia now was known as Ecke’s Flaming Sphere.

In 1998, after 36 years of attentive tweaking, Flaming Sphere debuted for the November to December holiday market as 'Winter Rose'™. It was a sellout success. On Dec. 13, 1998, Steve Hershfeld, owner of Hillcrest Nursery in Millers, central Maryland, explained the novelty poinsettia’s appeal to customers in a Baltimore Sun special article by Beth Smith:

“They really flipped over this plant. They loved its dark red color, its double flower image and its uniqueness.”

Since Ecke Ranch’s successful 1998 debut of the first incurvately bracted and leafed poinsettia cultivar, Ecke Ranch has expanded Eckespoint® Winter Rose™ ‘Dark Red’ into a curly family. A fuller palette is now available, with colors including Marble, Deep Pink, Pink and White.

The takeaway for the winsome sport’s transformation from unnamed patented poinsettia to ‘Flaming Sphere’ to ‘Winter Rose’™ is Euphorbia pulcherrima’s phenomenal amenability to tweaking of distinctive, unusual traits, especially as exemplified by Ecke Ranch’s revolutionary introduction of the first variety with incurved bracts and foliage.

face view of unnamed patented poinsettia, as illustrated in Paul Ecke Jr.’s patent application, filed July 6, 1950; illustration depicts various stages of leaves; substantially ovate form (center); partly arcuate midrib, with leaf rolling under toward blade’s lower surface (left); increasingly curved midrib, with leaf rolling up toward blade’s upper surface (right): Paul Ecke Jr., Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Poinsettia ‘Winter Rose™,’ Dec. 1, 2007: miheco, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/miheco/2078321017/?ytcheck=1

face view of unnamed patented poinsettia, as illustrated in Paul Ecke Jr.’s patent application, filed July 6, 1950; illustration depicts various stages of leaves; substantially ovate form (center); partly arcuate midrib, with leaf rolling under toward blade’s lower surface (left); increasingly curved midrib, with leaf rolling up toward blade’s upper surface (right): Paul Ecke Jr., Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP001052

For further information:

Baldwin, Debra Lee. “Winter Wonder.” San Diego Union-Tribune. Dec. 13, 1998.
Available @ http://www.franzfruehwirth.com/winterwonder.html

Benson, D. Michael; Janet L. Hall; Gary W. Moorman; Margery L. Daughtrey; Ann R. Chase; Kurt H. Lamour. “Poinsettia: The Christmas Flower.” APS (American Phytopathological Society) > Publications > APS Features. DOI: 10.1094/APSnetFeature-2001-1201
Available @ http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/pages/poinsettiaflower.aspx

Dougherty, Elizabeth. “Patently Poinsettia.” Inventors Eye. Dec. 2013.
Available @ https://www.uspto.gov/custom-page/inventors-eye-patently-poinsettia

“Euphorbia pulcherrima (Winter Rose® Series).” Learn2Grow > Plant Search.
Available @ http://www.learn2grow.com/plants/euphorbia-pulcherrima-winter-rose/

Hendry, Erica R. “Popular Potted Plant Captured Christmas.” Smithsonian magazine > Arts & Culture. Dec. 12, 2013.
Available @ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-americas-most-popular-potted-plant-captured-christmas-180949299/

International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. “Document TGP/14: Glossary of Technical, Botanical and Statistical Terms Used in UPOV Documents. Section 2: Botanical Terms: Subsection 3: Color: (2): Color Names for the RHS Colour Chart.” UPOV (Union Internationale Pour la Protection des Obtentions Végétales). Dec. 9, 2006.
Available @ http://www.upov.int/edocs/mdocs/upov/en/tc_edc/2007/tgp_14_draft_1_section_2_3_2.pdf

Marriner, Derdriu. “American Green Poinsettia Gardens for America’s Toothed Spurge.” Earth and Space News. Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/american-green-poinsettia-gardens-for.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “American Wild Poinsettia Gardens for America’s Other Poinsettia.” Earth and Space News. Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/american-wild-poinsettia-gardens-for.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Poinsettia ‘3-91’ With Blushed Red Bracts Is Sold as Monet Twilight™.” Earth and Space News. Sunday, Dec. 18, 2016.
Available @ http://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/poinsettia-3-91-with-blushed-red-bracts.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Poinsettia ‘Ice Punch’ Has Cherry Red and Pink Bicolored Flower Bracts.” Earth and Space News. Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/poinsettia-ice-punch-has-cherry-red-and.html

“Poinsettia Named Pink Curly.” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). Nov. 16, 1982.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP004950

“Poinsettia Named Red Curly.” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). Nov. 16, 1982.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP004952

“Poinsettia Plant.” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). Dec. 11, 1951.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP001052

Smith, Beth. “Holidays in Bloom: The Popularity of Poinsettias as a Holiday Flower Has Been Boosted by the Development of New Varieties.” The Baltimore Sun > Collections > Plant. Dec. 13, 1998.
Available @ http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-12-13/features/1998347193_1_poinsettias-paul-ecke-ranch-winter-rose

Williams, Jack. “Christmas Companions to Poinsettias.” L&GR (Lawn & Garden Retailer) magazine. February 2007.
Available @ http://lgrmag.com/article/christmas-companions-poinsettias/

Williams, Jack. “Winter Rose Early Red.” GPN (Greenhouse Product News) magazine. February 2004.
Available @ http://gpnmag.com/wp-content/uploads/WinterRose1.pdf

“Winter Rose™ Family.” Ecke Ranch > Poinsettias > Poinsettia Crop Information.
Available @ http://www.ecke.com/poinsettias/cropinformation/winterrose/