White and Rare

[ragn4rok]

Hi all,

I just wanna share some rare plants variants that become very popular here in Indonesia..

Check this out..






And here's the plant

Anubias barteri var. nana "White"



Plants by: HoHo...

The plants has been kept since 1991. So I think the white gene is stable already.

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and also the white downoi aka. Pogostemon helferi "White". This is still a new plant that one of the hobbyist here try to develop. I hope it'll also becoming stable.


Plants by: WieWie...

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Any other rare white variant of aquatic plants to share? Thanks...

Warm regards from Indonesian hobbyst.

[Plantbrain]

I think that is a deficiency, not a variant of White downoi.
Most white colors are due to a lack of Chl a/b, so the plants will also grow much slower also.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[ragn4rok]

Hi Tom, how to create the variegated variant from the plants?

WieWie said that he used some kind of bacteria to make the downoi white. It's not because of the nutrition deficiency. And also there are some method using hormone. Do you know what kind of bacteria and hormone that make the plants turn variegated?

btw, this is WieWie tank where he keeps the white downoi.



OOT:
He's a professional hobbyist here. He even try to grow some roots from the trimmed leaves. I believe that nutrition deficiency is not an issue for him.

[Plantbrain]

It might be, I could be wrong........ but I've seen this same pattern before in a dozen or so folk's tanks asking me about it.

http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/bot...riegation.html

In other words, it's fairly common and will not grow as well as a solid green plant. Bacetria or viral infection was one thing the orchid folks suggested.

These he has might grow true, most of the folks that had the white center growth, thought it was a deficiency and did not report it continued. So it's been around a fair amount and looks just like these pics.

I've had it occur a few times, but it did not persist in my own tanks.
It reverted to green growth.

Since most aquatics are grown from clones..........the genes should persist.
Under N limitation, the lack of Chl a/b is common, and in newer leaf growth, the Chl a/b are some of the last pigments to form, which is why tips are redder and lighter in color than older leaves of many aquatic species, same is true for most all plants.

Chl development is some of the last stages for the maturation for leaves.

I could be wrong though, these might be true, but with time, as we can see from the picture, the older leaves are indeed all green. Only the new tip growth is white.

Why are the older leaves not also white?
If it is a true form, those should be white also.

Also, since I add a fair amount of KNO3, it's not surprising my plants reverted back to green, they still are lighter in color in the newer leaves....but are nice green, not almost pure white. The white color needs to stay in the older leaves before it's a real true variegated form, like the Anubias are.

Otherwise it might be simply a N moderate deficiency. You can see some of the plants are solid green, but plant to plant health is common with this species depending on where/what the roots have access too, those are not aggressively growign from the looks of it, replanted recently and small still.
I have 4sq Ft of downoi. I'll post a pic some time in the next few.

Regards,
Tom Barr