Posted on by tonytomeo

Off Color – Very Variable Variegation

‘Stuttgart’ canna

Reversion among vegetation is the loss of an aberrative genetic characteristic, such as variegation or bronze foliar color. Because most genetic aberrations that are susceptible to reversion are disadvantages, reverted growth generally performs more efficiently, and displaces remaining genetic aberrative growth. For example, because its variegated portions lack chlorophyll, variegated foliage is less vigorous than foliage that is not variegated. Therefore, if not removed, unvariegated reverted foliage is likely to grow faster and replace variegated foliage. This ‘Stuttgart’ canna leaf seems to have done the opposite of reversion, by exhibiting such extreme variegation that all green color is lacking. Fortunately, it is not as bad as it looks. This is merely very variable variegation. Just as a few leaves may be completely green without actually reverting permanently, a few leaves are extremely variegated, and on rare occasion, a few, such as this leaf, may lack any obvious green color. Leaves that developed after and above this leaf exhibited more typical variegation with both green and white. Otherwise, this particular cane would not survive for long without chlorophyll for photosynthesis. The flowers are unaffected because they derive their floral color from pigment rather than chlorophyll. White redwood foliage can survive without chlorophyll only because it can rely on resources provided by the normal growth with green foliage that it is attached to, almost parasitically. Such growth is considered to be albino, but because it merely lacks chlorophyll rather than pigment, it is technically not albino. Furthermore, it is technically not variegated, since it is so completely white, without any green chlorophyll. Oh, this is more complicated than it should be. It is probably better to simply appreciate appealing genetic aberrations such as white, variegated or other colorful foliage. ‘Stuttgart’ canna will not refresh its variegated foliage until the end of winter.

Posted on by tonytomeo

Green, White & Red

North Fourteenth Street is about as close as I have ever been to Italy; but amongst all the Green foliage here, I can find a bit of White albino Redwood foliage. It is a ‘sport’, which is a silly word for mutant growth. Because it lacks chlorophyll, and is consequently unable to photosynthesize, it is reliant on resources that it draws from the tree that generated it, which has a canopy of normal green foliage. Because of this reliance, copies of this mutant growth can not be grown as cuttings. Such cuttings simply could not sustain their own growth. I have made a few unsuccessful attempts to graft this mutant growth onto normal trees. The scions deteriorate before they can graft. I should try again. This foliage really is as strikingly white as it looks in pictures. I am certainly no expert on floral design, and I know that this foliage does not last for long once cut, but I suspect that it would look striking with black bearded iris or black hollyhock, or on a smaller scale, with black pansies or black petunias. Heck, it might likewise be striking with white flowers. In the early 1970s, albino redwoods, which are merely albino sports of normal redwoods, were considered to be very rare, with only a few documented specimens. Although they really are quite rare, many more have been documented since then, and many more, such as this specimen, remain undocumented. I wrote about this albino redwood foliage a few years ago, and was reminded of it by the wildlife photographer of Portraits of Wildflowers near Austin. Except for a few trees that are barely north of the border with Oregon, coastal redwood is exclusively native to the West Coast of California. It is the tallest tree in the World.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 10 Comments

Albino

P80804KHow Italian! Red, white and green! A coastal redwood with a white albino sport (mutant growth) amongst otherwise deep green foliage. Actually, it is very Californian. Coastal redwood is endemic to California with only a a few north of the border on the extreme southern coast of Oregon.
Such sports are quite rare. Back in the late 1970s, an article in World Magazine mentioned that only five of these albino ‘trees’ where known to exist. There were actually more, even back then, but others were not documented. (They were WithOut Papers – WOP.) The specimen in the picture is at a home that is about a century old, so it was known about for a very long time, although not documented.
Albino foliage is a lethal mutation. It lacks chlorophyll, so can not sustain itself. It only survives because it originates as basal watersprouts that remain attached to the original green trees that produce and then sustain it. Attempt to graft albino grown onto other green trees has been unsuccessful.
Albino growth looks pretty in pictures, and is provides striking (although very perishable) cut foliage that is even more striking with black flowers, but does not make such a nice tree. It stays shrubby at the base of the originating tree, without developing distinct trunks or substantial branches. It does not shed old foliage as efficiently as green growth does, so always looks grungy. To make matters worse, albino foliage is more sensitive to frost, so gets killed back every few years or so, and then is slow to shed the dead foliage and stems.
Coastal redwood is one of the most fascinating trees in the World. It is the tallest, and among the biggest and oldest. It is no wonder that it is the state tree of California.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 17 Comments

Six on Saturday: Bits and Pieces II

 

It has been a while since I posted a sequel to anything like I used to do so commonly. I am only doing it now because I do not have six pictures that fit a particular theme. There are not six different camellias or six different rhododendrons blooming at the same time. There is not a new landscape with six different newly installed plants to show off. Instead, I merely found a few amusing or silly pictures from work for this week. I sort of like #5 because it is interesting even to those of us who are familiar with it. I will actually elaborate a bit more on that later at noon.

I know these Six on Saturday posts do not fit with my other articles, but hey are fun for those us who participate. You can see other Six on Saturday posts by other writers at the link at the bottom of the page. You might even want to give it a try and participate yourself.

1. This might look like a signs at the Generic Aroboretum, or the Arboretum for the Horticulturally Disinterested, but the signs really refer to buildings that are named after trees. Almost all of the buildings in the neighborhood are names after flora of some sort.P80804

2. Woodpecker pantries are often constructed in old coastal redwood trees with soft bark. It seems silly to me; but it must be effective. Otherwise, woodpeckers would not put so much effort into stocking them. Woodpeckers deposit single acorns into the holes bored into the bark, in order to store the acorns for later. Some of these holes are very old, so have stored several acorns over several years. At lest one woodpecker guards the pantry from squirrels while the other woodpeckers are out and about collecting acorns. Such pantries are typically in trees that are isolated from others, so that squirrels can not enter from other trees, and then raid the pantry from above. The only access to the squirrels is from the ground. This panty does not seem to be active at the moment, but discarded acorn shells at the base of the tree indicate the it was active in recent history.P80804+.JPG

3. Coastal redwood trees are very efficient at regenerating from stumps of harvested trees. This tan oak wanted to give it a try too. It did not really regenerate from the stump of course, but merely grew from an acorn in the detritus that collected on top of the stump, and rooted into the rotted wood. The fractures visible at the bottom of the stump are caused by expanding tan oak roots.P80804++

4. Which of these things does not belong here? Do you remember that from Sesame Street? Blue hydrangeas are not common here, although we have quite a few that are fertilized to be blue. I thought that these looked silly together because they are so similar in color.P80804+++

5. Albino coastal redwoods are so fascinating. The white foliage can not survive without chlorophyll, so must remain attached to the original green tree that produced the white mutant growth. This takes a bit of explanation, so I will write a bit more about this about noon.P80804++++

6. Finally, we have two silly looking tiny weds that grew in a crack in the big rock that I wrote about earlier in Rock Concert. https://tonytomeo.com/2018/04/07/six-on-saturday-rock-concert/ They are not much to look at, but this looks like one of those artistic pictures that other writers take.P80804+++++

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:

https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/