Tex Gal

I have Rotala Mini type 2. I have one stem that is morphing into an different and bigger leaf. Has anyone had this happen? I left the px big so you can see it goes down to a regular stem with regular leaves. At first I thought a different plant was caught in the mini. Then when I got my tweezers to remove it I realized it was attached!

 

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tropism

I've had my rotundifolia/indica morph into rotala mini... Ok, not really... just severe stunting for reasons I never did figure out. When I had first heard about Rotala 'mini' and saw a picture I thought that it was just stunted indica though. Then I saw pictures of it growing in lots of different tanks and realized it wasn't just a nutrient deficiency.

Maybe it is actually just some form of more common Rotala with a mutation that causes the small growth, and for some reason the mutated gene has changed again? (I wish I knew more about the plant genetics and biology.) I've seen lots of variegated terrestrial plants "out of nowhere" have leaves or entire branches that revert to the normal solid coloring. That also happened in one of my stems of Lysimachia nummularia 'aurea' (golden creeping jenny) -- first there were a couple streaks of darker green in a leaf, then a new side shoot from that area came out that was entirely the darker green color.

bigstick120

Interesting, maybe its turning to its emersed form? Ive never grown it that way so Im not sure how it would look. Did you have this floating in you tank of anything?

Afyounie

Mine has not done that at all. I have tried growing emersed, but it hasn't changed much out of water.

macclellan

That's interesting.

You're sure that's not a sprig of rotala 'green' or something that got mixed in your stand of mini?

Maybe this proves that 'mini' is just rotala with downs syndrome or something and that one is turning unretarded...

Tex Gal

I'm sure this is the top of a regular stem of rotala mini type 2. It is not floating and has a great root system at the bottom of the stem. I think this is so interesting. I am shocked that none of you have, as yet, told me you have experienced the same thing.

Bigstick - this came from your original stock!

So weird - isn't it?!

Macclellan - you're so funny! downs....lol

bigstick120

Ive never experienced it with any of my stems. Let it grow out and see what happens. Maybe you'll end up with mini type 3!

MartialTheory

Whoa pretty dam cool! But Trop has a point. That may have been excatly what had happen. Sometimes the mutation is only a gene or 2 in which case reverts are easer to do than if it was highly regulated. So with a simple mutation, there can be a simple muation to revert the orginal mutation. I think it must be a mistake in just one base pair in the DNA since reverts are extremely rare.

*its morphing time!*

Tex Gal

Well I'll keep in growing in there. I will eventually need to trim it. Unfortunately, when I do, no one will believe me that it came from Rotala mini type 2.

jmontee

How cool. I got some of my mini from you Tex. I'll watch and see if anything happens. Might be intersting if any side shoots from that plant revert to the original type 2.

 

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