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Yellow variegation that turns to white
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Posted by hoe_hoe_hoe 6b (My Page) on Sun, Feb 13, 05 at 15:35
Can anyone explain the botany behind this phenomena?
Thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Yellow variegation that turns to white
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| It is loss of chorophyl in the leaves. |
RE: Yellow variegation that turns to white
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But what happens to the chlorophyl?
I've been watching a variegated plant I discovered. Some of the foliage emerges green, some yellow. The yellow slowly lightens to pure white and then after a time kind of crinkles and dries up without discoloration. Is this due to the chloroplasts bursting? The leaves are very thin, so maybe the chloroplasts make a significant structural difference to the leaves. Today I realized some of the yellow foliage is also darkening to green after emergence. Are these chloroplast developmentally disabled, getting off to a late start somehow? Then there is the foliage that emerges green and seems to be stable. Its hard to imagine all these different things going on in one plant. |
RE: Yellow variegation that turns to white
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| Howdy Hoe, This Nutrient Troublechart might help you figure this out. Take a look and see if the newer or older leaves are affected. Generally speaking, plants will sacrifice old leaves in favor of new growth. Some of the minerals that the plant needs are moveable. So if the plant cannot find enough of a particular mineral in the rootzone, it will harvest the mineral from its own older leaves, transfer from one part of the plant to the other. Without seeing the plant, I cannot say that this is what is happening in your case, but I think if you observe the plant with this new knowledge, you may have a better shot at figuring it out. |
RE: Yellow variegation that turns to white
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- Posted by Eggo z10soCal LBC (My Page) on
Sun, Apr 10, 05 at 17:38
| Hello all, I think all of you are missing the point of Hoe Hoe question. I think the question is more of what causes yellow variegation and what causes white variegation and why does some plants switch between the two. My experience with this has to do with a plant that was normal green, mutated into a yellow/green pattern, then from there went on to a white/green pattern. If the plant constantly does this, my belief(I will admit I know very very little about botany) is that the mutation is a bit unstable. There's a article in the link below that talks about chlorophyll and xanthophyll. here's a quote "Variegation in leaves is caused by a loss of light absorbing pigments in the plant cells. Remove only the green chlorophyll and the result is yellow variegation. Remove both chlorophyll and the yellow pigment xanthophyll and the variegation is white. Yellow variegated leaves are still quite efficient at using the energy of sunlight to produce sugars." |
Here is a link that might be useful: chlorophyll and xanthophyll
RE: Yellow variegation that turns to white
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| There are several different possibilities for the change in variegation. One is that the presence/absence of light and its intensity and wavelength affects the chloroplasts and the chlorophyll that they contain. Depending on the particular problem (genetic) in the chloroplast light can bleach the chlorophyll making it whiten or it may help it and the cell becomes greener. Another aspect is that each plant cell (in most species) has many chloroplasts. Variegation can be due to a plant having two types of chloroplasts, normal and abnormal with the abnormal having less or no chlorophyll. As the plant leaves developed and cells divided some may have received different proportions of normal and abnormal chloroplasts. The cells will then be different shades of green (or yellow or yellow-green or cream) depending on the number of chloroplasts and how much chlorophyll they have and the background pigments). The abnormal chloroplasts may age differently and be destroyed by light or depending on the type of mutation they might actually recover due to light and become green. The original mixture of cells would be one overall shade and after a time, with certain cells losing or gaining colour the overall colour of the mixture could change. Also possible is that if a cell has abnormal chloroplasts then the light that is received actually damages the cell (because normal chloroplasts contain pigments to transfer some energy to less destructive uses and abnormal chloroplasts might be too disrupted to do that but still absorb the energy). The cell becomes bleached, and dries out. |
RE: Yellow variegation that turns to white
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- Posted by Eggo z10soCal LBC (My Page) on
Mon, Oct 17, 05 at 20:50
| thank you Admmad. That is a great explanation. It also explains another variegation question I would of had too. ThankS! |
RE: Yellow variegation that turns to white
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| The color change you describe is particularly common in Hostas. Yellow variegation will often turn green over the growing season, or if exposed to sun, yellow frequently bleaches to white. And, as you describe, white colored areas burn in the summer heat. That's why many of the Hostas with white variegation do not grow well in southern gardens. The quote below is from www.emilycompost.com under "Foliage Coloring". Three terms are pertinent to the culture of hosta, that sometimes make them chameleon-like in growth behavior. It is basically a color instability. Viridescence, will happen when a yellow center will gradually turn green as the season continues. This term also applies to when a white leaf turns green. Lutescence happens when a hosta will begin green and turn to a shade of yellow as the season matures. The third color changing term is albescence. This is when yellow area turns white. It is important to know that this is a normal thing. As for why this happens, admmad gave a great explanation. |
Here is a link that might be useful: emily compost
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