cS

This specimen turned up about 3 weeks ago in my emerse Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides setup. Unlike the regular all green form (1, 2) that we are more familiar with, this one is distinctly variegated, with yellow/white edging. Quite attractive.



The original NON-variegated specimen was acquired in October 2003 and has been in emerse culture since. On 04.28.2004, I noticed an unusual seedling in my emerse tray and this is the result three weeks later. Pretty exciting. Mutation? Or possibly it is a wind-blown contamination from the local flora that ended up in my emerse tray? I did a search with Steve Pituch's link on local flora (southern USA) and I didn't see any Hydrocotyle species that resemble this plant.

Any insight? Thank you.

Steve Pituch

CS,

First are you sure that it is Hydrocotyle sibthorpiodes? Is the structure identical to the other green stuff you have?

Do you have any other variegated plants in your tank, like Scarlet Hygro? Kasselmann usually considers variegated variations to be virus induced. She does mention in her book about one species catching the virus from another species.

I got a similar result when I bleached some lobelia cardinalis. However, as the new leaves appeared they were solid green.

You mention that this one popped up possibly from a seed? It could be that it is undergoing a nutrient deficiency that the mature plants that you acquired did not undergo since they may have had stored reserves. It will be interesting to see what happens to this plant as it grows.

Steve Pituch

tsunami

I wouldn't be too surprised if it did turn out to keep the variegated mutation. Variegation is very common in many aquatic plants. Here are some other plants which have variegated forms:

Alternanthera reineckii
Anubias barteri v nana
Aponogeton undulatus
Bacopa caroliniana
Hygrophila difformis
Lindernia rotundifolia
Rotala macrandra

Come to think of it, I think I remember seeing some online pond stores selling the variegated version of Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides!

Carlos

Ghazanfar Ghori

I saw some varigated Hydrocotyle sibthorpiodes at Lowes today
in the pond section. 4" pot for $5-6.