Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Fading Variegation, 0 by rox_male

rox_male wrote:
I only have had one variegated EE show some revertion. My A. Frydek variegata died back this summer and then started growing again. The 1st leaf came in all green, but then the subsequent 2 leaves came in lovely and marbled like they should be. Eventually the 1st leaf also began to show minimal marbling.

I don't have a great picture, but if you look at the top of the image you can see 2 leaves of the A. Frydek. One has almost no variegation and the other is just beginning to show it.

I did find one relevant? reference to reversion on gardenweb.
Here is an excerpt...

" it looks like macro "New Guinea Gold" from tissue culture which doesn't work very well on this kind of chimera.

RESPONSE 1
Do you say that to mean it will revert back to all green? When I bought it, it was all green. As it grew during the summer, it took on the yellow variegation and all new growth from the main stalk has been variegated. However, the two pups are all green.

RESPONSE 2
NGG starts out green and develops the splotches "later". Like Colocasia Nancy's Revenge starts out green and develops the white stripe "later"

New Guinea Gold, like a lot of other variegated plants, seems to "come and go", the amount of variegation varies throughout the year.
I had a beautiful New Guinea Gold that at times was predominantly deep gold/ yellow yet at other times you could almost have mistaken in for a very deep green regular Alo macro.
I have several macro with green and white variegation and the same occurs. The amount of light doesn't appear to be the reason and I am in the tropics where we don't have any real seasons so I don't know why this is????

RESPONSE 3
NGG is the kind of variegated plant that has genetically different tissue growing within the same plant.
With tissue culture they have to get some of both types in the same cutting to make them come out. Most come out like yours, but a lot of them come out differently for better or worse. Some have a nice marble effect, some just a few gold spots at their best, etc.

The first ones I saw of these were long before they started mass producing them from tc and they kept their variegation year round. A few years ago I spotted three small tc plants among that had good variegation in a greenhouse during the winter among many others that did not. I bought them to see what would happen and they kept their variegation year round like the old clone.

This is a different thing from the kind of variegation in C. Nancy's Revenge which comes uniformally true from tc and just needs to reach a certain size for Nancy to get her revenge.

I guess they need two different names for the NGGs that stay variegated year round and the ones that come & go as Troy describes.

I don't know why this is either, Troy, but the ones like yours and GHs only put out variegated leaves here July - Sept., the hotest part of the summer when they are growing fastest. "