Comments on: What’s up with Reversion?

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 05:01:00 +0000

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!”

By: Nelumbo

Nelumbo — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 04:55:00 +0000

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.

By: Rebecca Clayton

Rebecca Clayton — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 19:01:52 +0000

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.

By: Indygardener

Indygardener — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 15:48:52 +0000

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.

By: Alice

Alice — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 03:34:44 +0000

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?

By: Allison

Allison — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:04:23 +0000

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?