variegated catha edulis!!

[planthelper]

as often i checked on my catha edulis cuttings, yesterday and to my surprise, i spotted a variegated catha edulis cutting!!

unfortunately only a few leaves are patched with two different shades of green, and all the new leaves are all green only...

but i will keep an eye on this cutting.

spontanios variegation, i heard of often, but i never thought it would happen to me, and even with a catha.

if the variegation turns out to be pretty stable, this could put catha edulis even more into the landscape buisiness.

sorry no pic, hopefully one time though.

[naja naja]

To my understanding, variagation was or is sumtimes causes by a virus or bacteria or sumthing like that which can be passed between plants by things such as sap sucking insects. I have had in my greenhouse variagation tranfer from one bromelliad to another two sep plants I assume via thisa method. Not all are infected, but the two that are are 100% variagated now. Other species are unnaffected. Maybe diff virus for diff plants, housing in close vicinity too variagated plants and encouraging sap sucking could prmote variagation IMO.

[indigo264nm]

What Naja said matches up with what I was taught about variagation in horticulture.

[planthelper]

cool, process, you describe here!

hopefully i can post a pic soon!

i wonder if it works with lophs and other cacti the same way.

i love observing insects, and your answeres, could inspire me to a great many things.

one of the most common variagated plants here is that blue flowering bush, which sets often orange fruits, it's a very common landscape plant, no idea about it's name.

i will look out for varigated plants in my vicinety, and research the topic a bit more.

the very same plant just mentioned, often reverts itselve back into "green only" mode aswell, as one can often see in hedges of this plant, where all plants are a "bit yellow", but one is not.

http://www.dpvweb.net/intro/index.php

[naja naja]

the green branches are known as SPORTS, same goes when variagation first appears. Plants sumtimes "SPORT" very genetically diff branches. This could be expressed via pigmentation, fruit, flowers, etc

[DayLight]

pics or it didnt happen

[planthelper]

here she is!

forgot to say, it's a vienna white cutting, also known as green.

Edited October 13, 2010 by planthelper

[planthelper]

so what should i do with the main stem?

if it would be a spur, i would remove it.

but it's the only stem atm and the last 3 leaves are normal green again.

my plan is to remove the (green) growing tip if it continues to grow green,

and hope for variegated growth from the axils.

chances are, she will never produce a chimera leaf again,

or is that trait "embedded" in parts of its dna now?

i wonder if tissue culture could save and probagate this trait.

would be nice to grow it from a leaf cutting, but my feeling is that without tissue culture technics, that is not possible.

any, ideas what to do?

no experts out there?

[mescalito]

That's pretty darn cool PH!

Maybe you could take a slice of the leaf and clone it somehow?

Dunno which method would be best...maybe MDA or PDA plates?

Maybe half the leaf into sphag-moss?

It'd be interesting to see if she retains the expressed traits!

[Casuarius]

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Edited January 22, 2011 by Casuarius