First there was this, a huge ‘Francee’ hosta in my garden, the gift of a local garden designer with too many plants. Now it looks way too boring to merit a photo; it’s the plain old solid green we stick where the sun don’t shine and ground’s gotta get covered. I want to tell Francee to "Change back!", knowing it ain’t gonna happen.
Next up is something I’ve shown you before but only the remaining good parts, the stunning variagation in my ‘Sulphur Heart’ Persian ivy. But here you can see the real story. There are two plants here, the one on the left having reverted to solid green, either light or dark, while the plant on the right is still holding onto its original coloration but probably not for long.
So what does the inquiring gardener do when stumped by the mysterious forces of botany? Research, of course, so I can impress the hell out of you guys. And gardening resources on the Web are getting better all the time so I confidently perused the links on this very blog and found nothing. Any plant in the known world, no problem, but about something arcane like reversion – bupkis.
So naturally I resorted to the Great God of Google and there I learned that "Mean reversion is a tendency for a stochastic process to remain near." Who knew! I believe the subject matter was the stock market but don’t quote me. There’s also reversion to paganism, a supposed trend among New Agers, reversion as a British banking term, and lots of references to reversion in medical research. Oh, and I almost forgot "Reversion Acne Control."
So it’s a versatile term. Fine. Now what the hell’s happening to my plants?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
We have a “variegated Viburnam” (and of course can’t find the tags or the notes in the journal or folder to make this a really intelligent post – or beneficial, but I will go on anyways) and more than 1/2 of it has reverted to solid green over the last two years…no flowers either since it was purchased. I am now beginning to really believe in don’t f**k with Mother Nature!! – This is just Robert’s opinion, BTW, no reflection on my other half’s, since we share the same email and webpage (I have to say this!)
Wow, a techical botany question that I actually know something about. The white or yellow bits of a leaf–the variegated parts–are missing chlorophyll in those particular cells. That’s what makes them white instead of green. It’s also what makes leaves turn yellow in the fall or when a plant is sick–the plant is taking chlorophyll back so it can use it elsewhere. And…(I know, this may be too much information), this is similar to what causes “broken” or streaked tulips–the pigments that make a tulip red or purple or pink are missing from some cells, revealing the yellow or white color underneath, creating a streaked appearance.
So. A variegated plant is a little bit weaker, and if it can figure out how to revert to its more robust, chlorophyll-filled self, it will. Wouldn’t you?
Here’s a link:
http://www.coastbotanicalgarden.org/articles/variegated-plant-reversions.htm
It seems like I read somewhere that variegated plants need lots of sun to remain variegated. Did you see anything about that on the web?
I had known for years that variegated plants have a tendency to revert back to all green, but didn’t know and hadn’t bothered to find out, why. So thanks for raising this subject, and also thanks to Amy for providing such a simple explanation.
Amy – will cutting the green branches halt or slow down the process?
I’ve been seeing the same thing wiht my variegated plants. They will have shoots or an entire half that reverts to the true green form. Depending on the plant, I sometimes try to cut back the “green” parts to let the variegated parts grow without the competition from the stronger half, if that makes sense.
I’ve read (back in grad school, can’t find the source) that some plant varieties are variagated because they are infected with a relatively benign virus. (Philodendrons are an example, and I think ivy is too.) If the virus dies out in a portion of the vegatatively propagated plant, it’s back to green.
Interesting question, thanks for bringing it up! Also thanks to Amy for the info That’s amazing that you are watching mutation happen in your backyard. Now that I think about it, some of the varieties that we buy are selected mutants for being attractive, like varigation or dwarfism, and actually probably wouldn’t survive in the wild since they would be less adaptive and die out.
Not sure why this happens, but I do know that when you varigated plants show a solid color, the best thing to do is to cut that part out right away.
The green parts of the leaf are the only ones that have chloroblasts in them, and the only part that produces food; therefore the solid green areas will grow much faster than the varigated areas. Any all white areas produce no food and will starve the rest of the plant.
Varigated plants are not very good at competing against solid plants, so they don’t turn up in non-cultivated areas very often.
Everytime I see a varigated norway maple with solid green branches, I want to run up to the house, knock on the door, and say “Excuse me, are you aware that….” and repeat the info listed above to whoever answered the door.
Some four year old would probably answer the door, and stare at me for a moment before yelling “Mom, some crazy lady’s here!”