Variegation like in a Dracena. Very odd, isn't it? The parents are
rothschildianum and lowii. niether parent has variegated leaves.
Pete
"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
Pete wrote:
I have a Paph Julius that is in spike for the very first time. It is a
multigrowth plant and one of the new growths has variegated leaves,
what's
up with that? I have never seen that on a Paph. What caused it to grow
variegated leaves?
I had even emailed Parkside where I had bought it from 2 years ago and
they
don't the answer but they said that it does happen once in a while and
that
I shouldn't worry.
Variegated like a Paph. Maudiae, or like a dracena? Sometimes you
get 'flame' markings on phrags, where you see bright yellow halos on
leaves or sometimes bars across them. Nobody has ever explained that to
my satisfaction. I've heard that 'they are growing too fast for the
chlorophyll to keep up', but that sounds like BS to me... I haven't
seen that behavior on paphs. Sometimes you will get streaking or
stripes where other leaves have covered the leaf of your plant. That is
a response to the low light level (and can be a little freaky when you
first see it). I wouldn't expect to see tesselation or variegation in a
Julius, simply because the parents don't - but many multifloral hybrids
which have either Maudiae type or Chinese species (delenatii,
armeniacum, micranthum...) will have quite attractive foliage.
You can see sometimes what I call pleated leaves, they are actually
physically pleated in the lengthwise direction. Sometimes a lot,
sometimes a little. That isn't variegation, but it might be mistaken
for that. Not sure what causes that phenomenon either, but usually the
plants grow out of it.
If you have true variegation, and it is somewhat stable (all of the
new growths coming from the variegated growth come out true to pattern),
then you might have a plant that is worth something. Some cultures
really love odd variegation patterns. The Japanese are really into
Neofinetia falcata, not for the flowers but for the hundreds of
different leaf patterns. Each one has a name. They also like several
other genera with what we would call mutant coloring. Some of these
forms are sold for more than a new automobile.
Rob
--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit