Here is a picture of a from of Col Illustrius I selected it will soon be easy to find. It is a darker from than the regular Illustrius just a better selected plant.
Colocasia Illustrius Black Beauty
another picture.
Beautiful, but I'm confused. On another thread you said Illustrus was sterile. Is this a seedling or what?
I believe that Illustrius has good pollen but rarely makes it. I dont believe it can produce seed if so it is very very rare. This Black Beauty is a mutation basically if you take a plant and grow it out and get thousands of pups you will get some illustrius will green leaves and few to no black markings on selected pups and you can also get almost solid black forms as well. It is seen in Tissue culture when something is copied over and over again you get some odd ball suff. I am not a expert but its as though certain genetics seem to get lost in this. If I took a you and make a million copies the last copy might not look much like you, same thing with plants. In many cases these are called mutations or sports some are huge growers minitures and oddities. In most cases it seems to be a weaker deformed plant. But in few other cases a superior stronger plant.
Here is a picture of your normal Illustrius
Here is a picture of a more green mutations
Here is a new form of Illustrius I am working on this is a much slower grower but has a very unique look to it and it seems fairly stable.
This was not stable but did produce about 8 nice leaves like this then reverted back to the more normal look with backlobes.
Brian~
What causes an Illustris change in the amount of blackness from year to year? It seems that mine haven't blackened out they way they used to. I thought as they returned from dormancy, that little by little they'd color up fully, but that hasn't happened on any of them. The anount of black increased over the season but it isn't complete. The strange thing is that the new pups are already fully black after the first leaf. I have some that get very strong sun and some in part sun and the same is true of both.
What's going on? Just that morphing thing that happens with MM?
Robert.
Well I talked to a friend at Agri starts and it seems Illustrius black beauty is not the same form I originally had aparently a almost solid black form was found and named black beauty which is odd that I would also name one the same. Great minds thinking a like?
It is hard to say with illustrius on how dark a plant will be I have noticed in many forms as they get older the leaves will lighten up and produce more green. Fertilizers and acid in the soil maybe a part of this. I believe some clones are much stronger as well than others.
Well Brian you've answered one of my questions before I asked it.
I was wondering if my Illustris was 'normal'.
I have about 6 dozen pups now and several are coming out w/ random black blotches much like Milky Way does w/ white.
(BTW One of my MW's from you is throwing an all white leaf)
Now that I see your shots I see the blotching isn't that uncommon.
I'm getting some on Big Dipper too.
Ric