The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of 23 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include corn, cotton, fescue, peanut, potato and wallflower.

The 23 certificates are being issued under the Plant Variety Protection Act. The certificates require that the varieties be new, distinct, uniform and stable. The owners will have the exclusive right to reproduce, sell, import and export their products in the United States for the duration of protection.

The 23 certificates are:

•    the 16IUL6 variety of corn, developed by DEKALB Genetics Corporation, DeKalb, Ill.;

•    the N16028 variety of field corn, developed by The J.C.Robinson Seed Company, Waterloo, Neb.;

•    the LH331, LH255, LH289, LH321, LH247 and LH322 varieties of field corn, developed by Holden's
Foundation Seeds, L.L.C., Williamsburg, Iowa;

•    the #820Y variety of sweet corn (F1), developed by Abbott & Cobb, Inc., Feasterville, Pa.;

•    the ST 468 and ST 580 varieties of cotton, developed by Emergent Genetics, Inc., Memphis, Tenn.;

•    the Tamcot Luxor* variety of cotton, developed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station,
Texas;

•    the Cortez, Reserve, Axiom, and Wyatt varieties of tall fescue, developed by Advanta USA, Inc., Albany, Ore.;                       

•    the Plantation variety of tall fescue, developed by Pennington Seeds, Inc., Madison, Ga.;

•    the Tamrun OL 01* variety of peanut, developed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, Texas;

•    the UMATILLA RUSSET variety of potato, developed by State of Oregon, Acting by and through the State
Board of Higher Education on behalf of Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.; and

•    the Charity Cream Yellow, Charity Rose Red, Charity Scarlet, and Charity Yellow varieties of wallflower,
developed by Takii & Company, Limited, Kyoto, Japan.

* In the United States seed of this variety (1) shall be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed and (2) shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ).

USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed- reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers. For additional information contact the Plant Variety Protection Office at telephone (301) 504-5518, fax (301) 504-5291 or the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/science/PVPO/pvp.htm.