Cynodon dactylon
Green couch
Winter Gem (formerly protected by Australian Plant Breeder's Rights (PBR). PBR of this variety was termindated on 12 Feb 2020); DN9 (breeder's code).
Winter Gem is not available commercially. Winter Gem is a fine-textured Australian green couch variety that has bright emerald green leaves. Winter Gem was selected for turf quality and colour retention during winter in Victoria, Australia. The variety can also be mown as low 6 mm with a cylinder mower.
‘Winter Gem’ [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] was a variety produced by control pollination followed by selection of Cynodon dactylon varieties ‘Wintergreen’ and ‘Couch 5’ (also designated C5) by breeder David Nickson. Couch 5 [accession number S-130 (Robinson and Neylan, 1993)] was an experimental breeding line (that was selected from seed provided to the breeder by Arden Battensperger (McMaugh, 2008) that was a selection from an earlier series of crosses by the breeder between Wintergreen and a number of Cynodon dactylon accessions which had been collected by the breeder from the Peninsula Country Club Fairway 8B, Frankston, Victoria, Australia with mentor Peter E. McMaugh in February 1987 (Neylan, 2005; M Robinson 2008, pers. comm., 16 September). A series of other Cynodon collections were carried out between 1986 and 1990 from the Peninsula area of Victoria. Crossing was carried out by the breeder in 1998 and subsequent seedlings and selected plants were observed between 1998 and 2000. In the spring of 2000, the remaining potted seedlings were planted into plots at the Evergreen Turf farm at Pakenham, Victoria, Australia and allowed to expand fully. The final selection of Seedling 9 (later designated DN9) in late 2002 was based on shoot density, leaf texture and retention of winter colour (Roche and Loch, 2006). Winter Gem was granted Plant Breeder's Rights on 11 September 2006 and was first sold to Victorian Parks Constructions in February 2007 for use at the Grand Prix racetrack, Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (D Holden 2009, pers. comm., 17 June). [This extract was taken from Roche (2013)].
