> > eheick@acs.bu.edu (Christoph) writes:
> > > I have been witnessing some pretty strange behavior from my D.
> > > adelae. When I first got it the flowers were white, the following
> > > year the flowers were red, and remained red for eight years and
> > > now the plants have white flowers again, actually it is more a
> > > cream color now. Has anyone else had this phenomeon happen to
> > > them? This really puts some serious doubt in my mind as to
> > > wheather the two are really distinct forms. Can someone tell me
> > > what is going on?
> >
> >
> > The plant might have, over the years, selfed a few times and
> > produced viable seed which sprouted around the mother plant. I
> > think this might go unnoticed very easily, what with the way D.
> > adelae reproduces from it's roots. At this point, you have some
> > genetic variation and this could explain the new flower color.
I was growing my D.adelae under lights all winters. One of the
plants had nice red flowers, the other had white flowers. Both
were approximately the same distance from the lights, had the same
amount of water, etc. I moved both the plants outside where
they're now getting about 4-5 hours of direct (unfiltered)
sunlight. The plant that had been producing white flowers is now
producing red flowers. The interesting thing is that there are
still a couple of white flowers on the changling. The leaves are
slightly different on the two plants: the all red-flowered plant's
leaves are deeper green (almost reddish) and narrower than the
white/red flowered plant.
I'm not sure if these are two different forms, but I'm going to
keep growing them that way until I find out for sure.
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