I put down a couple leaves from the Ma's Melody Girl Allison sent me, and noticed something odd. One leaf was growing babies the "normal" way, as in from the stem of the leaf. But the other one... It looks like a crown is forming instead.
Here's what it looked like on 1/20/07.
Stephanie
And here it is a week later.
This is a "girl" leaf, and the little ears are actually growing out of the lighter green portion at the center of the leaf where it joins the stem. Is this a crown forming?
Stephanie
Very interesting.
Put it on eBay and say it's a rare mutation and maybe "J" will pay big bucks for it!!! :)
Okay Gardengirl....that just made me laugh out loud. :)
LOL, Gardengirl. Maybe I should, at that!
;-D
Stephanie
It's normal :))
I let them grow until big and then take off pot up like a sucker baby ! I've had it happen many times to Strep leaves too !
You know you do not need a stem to grow babies. With AVs you don't want roots you want to grow babies. I had this cool pictures of a leaf with large babies on it showing where the babies grow from with no roots. It was on the web sight showing how Av babies grow. One reason you don't want to use rooting hormones as you want to grow babies not roots, the roots will come later.
To ad cool growing :)) In no time you will have a good size crown, sucker baby pot it up and it will root real fast ! I love this plant too !
Nanna, my mom has had AVs for years, and she said she never saw anything like that. Of course, she hasn't grown much from leaf, either.
I looked more closely at the other leaf (the one growing babies the normal way) and noticed that it, too, may be starting to do what this leaf is. There is what looks like a tiny, tiny leaf starting to grow from the center of the leaf, in the lighter colored area at the base of the leaf. I'll have to keep an eye on it.
Stephanie
Stephanie ! Did you see my post above ? Well I have grown thousands of babies from Leaf and had it happen often. I posted pictures in thread but so many hard to find. Last one I posted was a Strep baby on top of Mom. It made a great Strep plant!
It will crown when big enough for you to handle pop off like a sucker pot it up and it will root within a week !
Allison, it's growing so fast, or at least faster than any of my other babies. I think I'll keep a weekly pictorial record of it's progress. The way it's growing, it'll be ready to separate and be potted on it's own in no time!
Thanks,
Stephanie
Yes they grow much faster. I'm searching and searching the web for specila pictures of this. I know I have some on the forum but I am looking for special studies with cool pictures. All I have fount so far is
I am searching and searching to find that special picture to show you.
Here someone on another forum asked the same thing you did !
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/afrviolet/msg121453104591.html?3
Look at this neat study
http://www.unh.edu/inquiryjournal/06/commentary/kendrick.html
I've had friends that just cut peices of leaves up put them in a little moist soil or moss in plastic bag pin them up hanging and babies grow saving room !
I'm still looking trying to find the good ones I read a few years back !
Happy Growing
I have a plant of 'Rob's Ragamuffin' that got crown damaged by overly bright lights (what was I thinking putting this one in the middle of the light shelf?), and rather than suckering from the middle of the plant as you might expect, it has started to produce tiny plantlets on a couple of the leaves -- just like the photo above, but while they're still attached to the plant! Very strange.
It's not strange for it to happen to a leaf down though. I have had it happen often to Av and Strep leaves. Hek you can cut a leaf up place it in a zip lokc bag in moss or damp paper towel and get babies everywhere :)) Just take them off like other links say pot the suckers up :)) It's a fast gift of getting a new blooming plant !
Not much different then when you chop off a crown of a Chimeira and you get all pretty crowns , again you just take the crown/sucker off pot up and have a new plant ! Yeah !
Happy growing !
Now Jill your's sounds different ? Do you have a picture ?
