Crimschmidt
Quercus × bimundorum (Q. robur × Q. alba)
The record
- Parentage
- Quercus × bimundorum (Q. robur × Q. alba)
- Origin
- J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. · Found as a chance seedling in a nursery row at Oquawka, Illinois, from seed collected off Quercus robur at Champaign, Illinois with Quercus alba growing nearby · introduced 1994
- Rights
- patented — US Plant Patent PP9,103. Sold under the Crimson Spire™ mark, a J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. introduction of 1994. The patent term expires; a renewed trademark does not. Check the current term before propagating.
- Also known as
- Crimson Spire™, Crimson Spire Oak
- Form
- Columnar
- Foliage
- Dark to blue-green, mildew-resistant, red in autumn
- Inheritance
- Columnar habit and urban tolerance from the English oak side; mildew resistance and red autumn colour from the white oak side
Description
A chance seedling in a nursery row, not a planned cross: seed collected off English oaks at Champaign, Illinois where white oaks happened to stand nearby, grown out at Oquawka, and one plant in the row turned out to be a hybrid worth keeping.
It is the cleanest example in this file of a naming pattern worth understanding before you read any nursery tag. The registered cultivar name is ‘Crimschmidt’ — a coined word nobody uses. The selling name is Crimson Spire™, a trademark. A patent governs whether the plant may be propagated and runs out; a mark governs what it may be called and, renewed, does not. When the patent expires the plant becomes free to propagate, and it still cannot be sold as Crimson Spire. Nurseries build these two-name pairs deliberately, and the cultivar name is the half a grower needs.
Where to find it
No source recorded. That does not mean the cultivar is unavailable, only that this record does not yet name a nursery carrying it. Point us at one and it goes in.