Cultivar · Soybean cultivar
Forrest
Forrest is a public soybean cultivar released by USDA-ARS in 1973 from the cross Dyer × Bragg. A Maturity Group V cultivar for the mid-South, it is best known as a soybean cyst nematode–resistant line and a reference source of that resistance.
Record
Cultivar / variety- Variety of
- Soybean
- Botanical taxon
- Glycine max
- Type
- Cultivar (self-pollinated pure line)
- Breeding method
- Cross-breeding and pure-line selection
- Origin
- Mid-southern United States (Mississippi), United States
- Released
- 1973
- Breeder / institution
- USDA-ARS (registered by E. E. Hartwig and J. M. Epps)
- Registry status
- Historical
- Registries
- USDA GRIN · United States · as of 2026-07-12Forrest is maintained in the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection; specific accession identifiers are not reproduced here.
- Adaptation
- Maturity Group V, historically adapted to the mid-southern United States; maturity-group adaptation ties flowering and maturity to day length and latitude.
- Intended use
- Grain and oilseed soybean production in the mid-South (historical), Source of soybean cyst nematode resistance in breeding, Reference genotype for genetic mapping of nematode resistance
- Pest resistance
- Released as a soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines) resistant cultivar; resistance to the population historically designated race 3 is conditioned by two loci (Rhg1 and Rhg4). Resistance is specific to particular nematode populations (races / HG types) and is not effective against all of them.
Source-attributed claims; efficacy varies with pest biotype, pressure, and region.
Registry listing or variety protection is jurisdiction- and date-specific and does not by itself indicate current commercial availability, universal cultivation approval, patent status, or a recommendation.
Forrest is a public soybean cultivar developed by USDA-ARS and registered in 1973. It was selected from the cross of the cultivars Dyer and Bragg and is a Maturity Group V type adapted to the mid-southern United States.
Forrest became an important early example of a soybean cyst nematode (SCN) resistant cultivar and has since been used extensively as a resistance source and as a parent in genetic-mapping populations studying the inheritance of SCN resistance.
Development
Forrest was selected from the cross Dyer × Bragg and registered in 1973 through the USDA-ARS soybean program serving the southern United States. As a Maturity Group V cultivar, it was suited to mid-South latitudes.
Soybean cyst nematode resistance
Forrest was released as a cultivar resistant to soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines). Its resistance to the nematode population historically designated race 3 is conditioned by two loci, commonly referred to as Rhg1 and Rhg4, and Forrest has been widely used as a parent in mapping populations that dissected this resistance.
Status and use
Forrest has been superseded by newer cultivars for commercial production but remains significant as public germplasm: it is used as a resistance source in breeding and as a reference genotype in nematode-resistance research.
Official variety registration
Entries recorded for this denomination in official variety registers. Registration is a legal fact about marketing or ownership, separate from where the variety is grown or whether seed is available.
No entry for this cultivar is currently listed in the registers AgricultureID reads.
Entries that are no longer current
Each register decides separately, so these are grouped by instrument and jurisdiction and never combined into one timeline.
United StatesCertificate of plant variety protection
- Observed 2026-08-27Certificate Expireddate not published by the sourceGranted 1975-08-08. The United States Plant Variety Protection now records this entry as “Certificate Expired” and publishes no date for the change.
- These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.
History records what an official source published at a point in time. Where the source states the date a change took effect, that date is shown; where it does not, only the date AgricultureID observed the change is shown, and it is labelled as such.
A variety registration permits marketing; a plant variety protection right is ownership. They are granted by different bodies under different law and are never added together.
Entries are matched to this cultivar by identical denomination and by matching botanical species. Registers do not publish a global variety identifier, so a same-name entry in the same species could in principle be a distinct variety.
Registration is jurisdiction-specific, is granted under a particular legal instrument, and changes. A variety absent from a register may still be grown; confirm the current position with the responsible authority before acting on it. How registration is recorded.
Scope & limitations
Geographic scope: Developed by USDA-ARS for the mid-southern United States; used internationally as a resistance source and research genotype.
Climate context: Maturity Group V soybean; maturity-group adaptation is latitude- and day-length-dependent.
- Forrest is a historical public cultivar largely superseded for commercial production; agronomic performance is environment-specific.
- Soybean cyst nematode resistance is population-specific (race / HG type) and can be eroded by shifts in the local nematode population; it is not universal resistance.
Sources
This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.
- [1]GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System (opens in a new tab)Authoritative
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Cited for: Maintenance of Forrest in the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection
- Type:
- Official registry
- Jurisdiction:
- United States / Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12
- [2]USDA ARS — Agricultural Research Service (opens in a new tab)Authoritative
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Cited for: Registration, parentage, and soybean cyst nematode resistance of Forrest
- Type:
- Government agency
- Jurisdiction:
- United States
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12