Albino and variegated traits in Trichocereus seedlings

[myco]

in my opinion pink like that generally is a variegate trait

my lil variegated Astrophytum is looking really really pink at the moment

[Schrodinger's Khat]

So variegated doesn't necessarily mean yellow?

[hostilis]

It can be yellow pink orange and all the shades inbetween.

[Myeloblast]

Jox that plant is absolutely stunning. You have something very special there

[Jox]

Thanks for the complements everyone.

Hey S Khat, as hostilis has said variegated can be a range of colours, plants that don't produce pigments on part of there leaves or stems are known as forma variegata. I have done a bit of research about what makes an albino or variegated plant. Here is a quick run down I what I have found.

Plant pigments

Plants have different things in there cells that enable them to absorb light, the most common ones are Chlorophyll A and Chlorophyll B.

Chlorophyll

There are actually more than one kind of Chlorophyll, but not all are present in all plants, in most plants they have a least Chlorophyll A and B.

Chlorophyll A and B are green.

Accessory pigments

Accessory pigments are other pigments that are able to absorb light. Chlorophyll A and B are able to best absorb light in the violet-blue and red area of the light spectrum. That leaves the green, yellow and orange parts of the spectrum unusable. This is why plants have extra pigments (colours), in order to take light from different wavelengths that Chlorophyll is not good at absorbing.

Carotene is a orange pigment capable of photosynthesis. This pigment transmits light energy to chlorophyll. As well as photosynthesis, these pigments also help protect against too much light, photo-inhibition.

Phaeophytin a are grey-brown in colour.

Phaeophytin b are yellow-brown

Xanthophyll are yellow pigments in the carotenoid group. These pigments are involved with photosynthesis with chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is often much more abundant than xanthophylls and this is why the leaves are still a green colour. The pigment Xanthophyll is most obvious in Autumn in trees like the maple when the chlorophyll "dies back" and the leaves turn yellow.

Anthocyanin pigments are often red, purple or blue but this pigment is not found in cacti, cacti have the pigment Betalain instead.

Betalain are often a red-yellow-purple colour that is often found in the flower colour, it is also found in theleaves, stems, fruits and roots of theses plants as well.

-Betacyanins are reddish to violet Betalain pigments

-Betaxanthins are yellow to orange Betalain pigments

As you can see if a plant is lacking a certain pigment, chlorophyll (green) for example it can show up as the colour which is the more dominate pigment, yellow, red ,orange etc.

The classification of content and proportion of chlorophyll, according to Gustafsoon 1940 is as follows;

1 Albina - no chlorophyll or carotenoids are formed.

2 Xantha - carotenoids prevail over chlorophyll or chlorophyll is not even produced.

3 Alboviridis - different colour at the base and the tip of the leaf,

a) Alboxantha - base yellow, tip white

Xanthoalba - base white or faintly coloured, tip yellowish

c) Viridoalbina - base white, tip more or less greenish or yellowish-green

d) Alboviridis - base green, tip white

4 Viridis - uniform yellowish-green or light green occurring at seedling stage.

5 Tigrina - transverse destruction of pigment, the transverse strips are usually brown or yellow, narrow and pinched.

6 Striata - longitudinal stripes of yellow or white

7 Maculata - chlorophyll and/or carotin destruction in the form of dots.

These names are known in the cacti family;

Aurea - pure yellow plant.

Rubra - red plant

Alba - white plant

I hope that this information helps people understand a bit better, have a good weekend everyone.

Cheers

Jox

Edited February 15, 2014 by Jox

[Jox]

By the way I don't think Xanthoalba is super cool but when I type in b ) it comes up as the smiley face with the sunnies .

Edited February 15, 2014 by Jox

[Schrodinger's Khat]

Thanks for the information Jox, that's nice and detailed.

How long you been growing cacti for?

[Wocket]

Are there any updates on the albinos?

[zelly]

i think there'd be a lot more albino's floating around if guys like me who plant out massive amounts of seeds actually took the time to graft the variegated and albino seedlings as they occur rather than expecting them to live & grow on their own roots.

I had the occasion to plant out a very large number of scop x red flower variegated grandiflorus, which resulted in an abnormal number of variegated seedlings, many which perished.

utilizing the grafting skills of hostilis, i shipped him 7 variegated seedlings, of which only a few had any green whatsoever, the others being totally yellowish variegated. 5 of the seven survived the grafting. rumor has it that one crossed the big pond & made its way down under

pics were taken a few weeks ago when he shipped them back; they've almost doubled in size since then.

contrast those to several I've forced to grow on their own roots in full sun:

A customer made the comment that he observed an abnormal number of albino seedlings of another hybrid cross i made, validus x the same variegated red grandi. That prompted me to sow some of those seeds and by golly he was spot on. A huge number of seedlings were albino, but under my casual care, they all perished. Today from that batch of seed I must have a half dozen or so variegated seedlings on their own roots

[gerbil]

i think there'd be a lot more albino's floating around if guys like me who plant out massive amounts of seeds actually took the time to graft the variegated and albino seedlings as they occur rather than expecting them to live & grow on their own roots.

I actively kill them or kill by ignoring them, I don't think they're worth the time and energy with the view that there are more important things to do with propagation and breeding, especially in the context of limited space and time.

I think of your stock I noticed them more frequently than others in small sowings of lumberjack x juuls like the specimens that jox posted. But they did occur over a few of your hybrids in similar small sowings.

I never really took notes or communicated any of it when I possibly should have if others are interested. I just don't really comprehend the desire for these things, I can understand my hypocrisy in the context of how nice TBM's and similar plants are and do have the desire to bring into life similar things, but for the majority of them feeding the compost heap is the best thought process for me.

Edited August 14, 2015 by gerbil

[Berengar]

Has anyone tried growing some of Solaritea's terscheckii hybrids? Both the tersc x PC and x peru produced almost 100% yellow 'albinos' for me. Many died, but I managed to graft a couple, they are beautiful. This is from one of the mother plants, I fforgot the code. Anyone had the same experience?

[Kykeion]

There is only one thing I see when I look at this picture.

[nut]

Damn I didn't see that!! I don't like varigates much but those varigate tbm are awesome!! I would do so many bad things to get one of those !!!

[Wocket]

Thanks for the pictures, zelly. I planned on getting some of those seeds on my next order, I'll have to make sure I find something to graft them onto before planting. I like variegated plants, especially if the color is splotchy.

I could see how variegated/albinos could be an inconvenience; having a high percentage of them wouldn't make the strongest crop, not to mention the extra attention they would require. However, my trichocereus collection is fairly young, and almost all PC plants, so I welcome the variety. I had my first variegates pop up a few weeks ago, so everything is new and interesting to me.

That TBM in the back is a nice touch, haha.

[zelly]

those varigate tbm are awesome!! I would do so many bad things to get one of those !!!

Like what mate?

recently shipped a vari tbm branch pup to Oz, you could be next lol

[Berengar]

Here's one of Solaritea's terscheckii JS354 X peruvianus 'Jessica. Most of the others seem to exhibit a similar coloration. Seriously extraordinary plant IMO.

[mushroomman]

Thats an awesome looking plant berenger! Iv been holding off sowing mine untill i have a heap of pereskiopsis ready.

This one is from zelly's 2012 validus x bridgesii seeds. Out of 50+ seedlings all but 2 were highly variegated and this is the only survivor

[nrivers]

I have just planted solaritea's terscheckii so am keen to see how mine turn out.

I also have this little fellow a bridgesii 'Ben' OP who is pink and almost see through! Will try grafting him and hope for something special.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Hey nrivers, I had maybe 10% of my Ben op seedlings turn out like this. I got them from eth, they were his plants I'm pretty sure. All of em died tho coz I had no Peres, try and save it!

[solaritea]

Thanks for sharing Berengar! I've seen my seeds producing a lot of variegates but haven't seen many get to that size yet. Most of my variegated seedlings died from casual care.

[mystical oyster]

Sorry for the photo quality guys..

Here is a validus x grandiflorus from zellys seed

The variegation doesnt seem to be growing only the green side is, is this normal?

Almost looks like its cresting.. can only hope but i doubt it

[zelly]

The variegation doesnt seem to be growing only the green side is, is this normal?

just off hand I'd say the mere fact of grafting is forcing accelerated growth, with the green side doing all the photosynthesis, so naturally the forced growth will occur there 'faster' than the variegated side.

[mystical oyster]

Makes sense, cheers! One of the only variegates ive saved.. will be getting stock ready for next sowing.

[CactEye]

Great thread!

I've had a bunch of albino seedlings pop up from a certain lumberjack cross. I believe it was LJ x ss02/01. I'm not a very skilled grafter, but managed to save one of them. It grew for about a month or two and started turning black one day and died. Not sure what caused it, but perhaps too much humidity. Quite a sad day indeed, but I still have some seeds left and will be trying this again soon. Here's a pic of her before she bit it.

Those are some great looking cacti guys! Jox-it's cool to see what my albino might have become. Looking forward to more updates

edit for better picture

Edited August 20, 2015 by Mrcuriouscacti

[Berengar]

That was a truly beautiful cactus Mr, so sorry it died.

Same thing happened to me with one of zelly's macrogonus X Helen, it started growing nicely, was pure white like yours, and suddenly just turned black and died overnight, seemingly without a cause.