FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have Flexx and Big Mouth in my collection; they're very nice plants. Flexx has the distinction (notoriety?) of being a copyrighted cultivar.

Well, well, I never thought that our hobby would get to copyrighted plants. Heavens to Betsy, it says it can be reproduced vegetatively or by seed of the parent plants (even though they are not identified), but I presume if I did so I would be infringing copyright?
Cheers
Steve

steve booth wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:39 am it says it can be reproduced vegetatively or by seed of the parent plants (even though they are not identified), but I presume if I did so I would be infringing copyright?

The "can be reproduced by seed" part is pure BS from the copyright holder. Venus flytrap cultivars do not breed-true, so germinating Flexx seeds will not give you a bunch of little Flexxes.

When I bought my plants, I asked the seller a "fun" question:

When these plants multiply, do I need the copyright holder's permission to sell the divisions? I now have exact copies of the original product. However, I didn't make the copies of the product; the product made copies of itself.

He couldn't give me an answer.

Agreed, no plant seed cross will ever breed tue due to the genetics which makes a nonsense of the description really, however the same happens with sarracenia, if the registered description does not state that the plant can only be reproduced by division or other means of cloning, then a simple crossing of the same plant species is sufficient to give the plant the same name. Catesbaei, swaniana, courtii, mitchelliana etc are cases in point.
Anyhoo, I note that the sales info denotes the plant in single quotation marks indicating it is a registered cultivar but I can't seem to find it in the ICPS database, but It has obviously been published somewhere, so if they have completed cultivar registration form and submitted to the ICPS Cultivar Registrar it would qualify as a cultivar, but then it should appear on the ICPS database
Cheers
Steve

steve booth wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2024 8:31 am however the same happens with sarracenia, if the registered description does not state that the plant can only be reproduced by division or other means of cloning, then a simple crossing of the same plant species is sufficient to give the plant the same name. Catesbaei, swaniana, courtii, mitchelliana etc are cases in point.

The hybrid designation is an indication of the plant's parents, but not of the plant's specific appearance; that's where the cultivar name comes in. For example, Sarracenia 'Scarlet Belle' is an x wrigleyana (psittacina x leucophylla) hybrid. You can cross those two species all day long, but to be a 'Scarlet Belle', it must be a vegetative propagation of that specific hybrid.

Flexx isn't a hybrid, but the same thing applies. It's a unique combination of genes from a single parent (self-pollinated) or two parents. If you want more Flexx plants, then they have to be vegetative propagations from a Flexx plant. A self-pollinated Flexx flower will produce Typicals.