'SERENITY': A PALER SKIN-COLOURED SOMACLONAL VARIANT OF THE SHORT-DAY CULTIVAR 'FLORENCE'

The short-day cultivar ‘Florence’ was released from the East Malling Research (EMR) strawberry breeding programme in 1997. The late-cropping season, high yield, large fruit size and multiple disease resistance of this cultivar led it to be planted extensively in northern Europe, but its acceptance to retailers in the UK was limited by its dark skin colour. Therefore a paler-coloured variant of ‘Florence’ was developed using somaclonal variation induced by micropropagation. 417 regenerants were successfully weaned, planted in the field and evaluated in 2006. Clone F62 had a visually much paler external colour than the standard ‘Florence’. For other quality traits and disease resistance there were no differences between this somaclone and the standard clone. F62 is currently being commercialised and is undergoing further trials in both the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. An application for Plant Variety Rights in Europe has been submitted for F62 with the designated name ‘Serenity’.