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Cryptanthus sports

Posted by bromadams (My Page) on
Fri, Nov 14, 08 at 9:17

Lisa, you mentioned a sport of Nivea. Would you call these sports or what? I'm new to the crypt game and maybe this kind of behavior is just normal variation.

Here is a sport of Pink Starlite. I guess it's a sort of an albino sport and will die once separated.

Here is a Ti with sports.

First pup has minor variations:

Second pup with major variations:


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RE: Cryptanthus sports

Well, technically I guess they would be sports, but not stable sports, so their usefulness is limited.

Ti can be quite variable in it's pattern of variegation, and often throws unvariegated pups too. None of this is enough to justify naming one as a new cultivar, since they're not stable. On the other hand, I believe that Ti is itself a sport of It, which is albomarginated. When the variegation switches from A-M to medio-picta or back, and it holds stable over several generations, then you've got yourself a new cultivar. Same with other types of changes that are distinctly different from the mother and remain stable, like if one pup came out with silver bands or lacked the reddish pigment.

Many albomarginates throw albino pups from time to time. While this does qualify as sporting, it is inherently self-limiting, since, as you say, they will die once removed, so it can't be propagated. The exception to this would be if the pup maintained enough chlorophyll in the otherwise albino tissue to stay alive. You don't see this kind of thing very often, but I'm thinking of Neo. Cloud Nine or Monty, where the lower leaves eventually turn green with age.


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