A Study on Variegated Violets

By Nancy Robitaille

Back in the 1950s there were a few variegated violets around. These were of the type called Spontaneous.

Spontaneous variegation is an undesirable trait in show plants since it is inevitably temporary and irregular, fading away to almost completely green leaves.

Spontaneous variegated violets were not very popular because violet collectors were not satisfied with the performance of the plants. A grower could get a variegated plant that had all green leaves except for one or two leaves that might have some white variegation in them.

Commercial people were not interested in propagating these spontaneous variegated violets because of their instability and most growers who took their plants to show could not do so with these plants.

Judges would have to take many points off a plant that had so many leaves with all-green leaves with no variegation so no one wanted to show them.

A popular author of that time, Helen Van Pelt Wilson, had this to say in her book titled AFRICAN-VIOLET BOOK, P. 83:
"THE FASCINATING PROBLEMS OF VARIEGATION"

Why African-violets develop variegated leaves and how to propagate variegations remain of major interest to all of us. The condition we see and refer to as variegation is of two kinds, one caused by certain environmental conditions, as soil deficiency or even pot binding, the other, as in girl-type leaves, a true variegation that can be inherited.

When the colored areas on a leaf run into each other and are not sharply defined, plants are usually suffering from a soil deficiency, probably absence of iron or manganese or other trace elements essential to the production of chlorophyll. Streaking in particular may indicate manganese deficiency. Restore balance to the soil and the "variegated" leaves may die or lose their variegation. It is even possible to starve or pot-bine a plant into greater variegation. Propagate leaves from such variegates and all may be green, unless the rooting leaves suffer from the same deficiencies as the parent plants.

True variegation is a mutation. As such it can be transmitted to its seedlings, but genetically the matter is quite complicated. The tendency to be partially or entirely white, will be seen in seedlings only if the variegated parent bears the seeds."

..."It is interesting historically that one spring the people at Tinari Greenhouses put to root a row of S. ionantha--fifty to seventy-five leaf cuttings--and the plantlets on all of these cuttings, every one, were variegated. The same spring they noticed considerable variegation elsewhere in the greenhouses. The next spring there weren't six variegateds in all, a slight percentage.

From this, it might be concluded that environment brought about variegation."

OUR MODERN DAY TYPES OF VARIEGATIONS

In 1959, a grower from the state of Mississippi, Tommie Lou Oden received a cutting from a very popular plant of the day called WHITE PRIDE. This was a double white flower on green leaves. Oden planted her leaf as we all do in a pot of good soil and waited for the babies to arrive. When the babies came she noticed at least one of them had strange white markings. She took special care of this variegated baby and as soon as it was mature enough to take a leaf for propagation she did so. Then as the next babies grew from the leaf --all variegated--she took leaves from these to go to another generation. Tommie Lou continued propagating leaves from her babies for nine generations and the variegation continued to be produced in 
the babies.

Oden took her plant to her friends and they told her she should have it registered and to call it TOMMIE LOU. This was the first variegated plant registered with AVSA. It was a double white with occasional orchid blush on green and white variegated leaves.

The violet world went crazy and TOMMIE LOU became a very popular plant.

Hybridizers of the day were astonished and wished to work with this fantastic plant which show variegation on every leaf and for the most part stayed variegated, unlike the unpopular spontaneous type variegation.

Hybridizers tried to pollinate the flowers of TOMMIE LOU but gave up in frustration because they believed the plant to be sterile.

Ten years passed when in 1969, a hybridizer, Harold Reinhardt tried to pollinate TOMMIE LOU. He finally experimented with the flowers, pealing them back to get a good look at the pistle (female part of the flower which accepts the pollen). He discovered to his amazement that the pistle instead of sticking straight up and visible was deformed and bent back upon itself so that it was impossible to pollinate the tip of the pistle. Reinhardt forced the pistle into upright position and pollinated it with pollon from one of his own hybrids, PURPLE GOLD.

In time a seed pod formed and when the well-known hybridizer, Lyndon Lyon visited Reinhardt, he was urged to take some of the seed. Forty-three seedlings were produced, all of them with variegated foliage.

Lyndon Lyon continued to produce new hybrids with variegated foliage in every possible color combination--white, red, blue, pink. There were no yellows then nor were there fantasys. Then years later, he also produced miniatures, semi miniatures and trailers with this 
same remarkable foliage.

Today there are literally thousands of variegated hybrids on the market and most can trace their ancestry back to TOMMIE LOU.

TOMMIE LOU variegation is simple to produce in hybridizing. It is not, in fact, a genetic trait at all since it isn't carried in the plant's chromosomes. Instead, it is carried in the ovary of the mother plant as a defect in the manufacture of chlorophyll and is transmitted to all its offspring as part of the egg itself. To obtain a new variegated hybrid, therefore, one only has to pollinate another variegated plant: all the seedlings produced will be variegated to some degree. On the other hand if the mother plant has all green leaves, no amount of crossing with the pollen of variegated plants will cause its seedlings to be variegated, since only the mother plant can transmit this trait...unless, of course, like Mrs. Oden, the grower is lucky enough to come across a new mutation! 

TOMMIE LOU Variegation or TL as it is sometimes indicated in descriptions is unique. The white part of a leaf seems to begin at the edges and works itself into the center. 

CROWN OR CHAMPION VARIEGATION IS DISCOVERED

Crown variegation describes a type of variegation concentrated in the center of the plant or the crown. These center leaves are often entirely cream, yellowish green or pink while the outer leaves can be entirely green. As the light color of the crown grows and becomes a second row of leaves, its color changes to darker green.

Some growers prefer this type of variegation and some hybridizers even specialize in this type of plant. Ethel Champion is one such hybridizer and she has produced a great many crown-variegated hybrids.

Crown variegation is more stable than spontaneous variegation and is easily reproduced by leaf cuttings.

MOSAIC VARIEGATION

Mosaic variegation, rather than being concentrated along leaf edges or in new growth is scattered evenly over the whole leaf surface like a mosaic pattern in ceramics or cut glass windows. This is the most stable of all the four types of variegation and is not affected by changes of temperature or nitrogen content.

Frank and Anne Tinari, well-known hybridizers, introduced a green-leafed plant called LILIAN JARRET. This plant mutated and produced a plant called LILIAN JARRET SUPREME. Again the plant mutated and this plant was variegated in a new and different way. It was called LILIAN JARRET VARIEGATED.

In spite of the fact that mosaic variegation was introduced many years ago, only a hand full of plants of this type have been hybridized. Hybridizers believe that this is because mosaic pattern are linked to a serious genetic defect.

Ethel Champion has been championing this type of variegation for many years and has produced quite a few lovely variegated plants. Another hybridizer well known in our day, our own Dr. Jeff Smith, has hybridized a series of plants with mosaic variegations with alpha name GENETIC.

THE INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE AND FERTILIZER

Three of the four types of variegation are strongly influenced by temperature changes and nitrogen levels in the soil. These are spontaneous, TL, and Crown variegation. Young plants, for example, are often nearly colorless and may not survive unless they can be "greened up." At this point, they should be watered with fish emulsion or some other high nitrogen fertilizer once a week, as this stimulates the production of chlorophyll, the pigment that gives leaves their characteristic green color, and is essential in photosynthesis (changing sun or artificial light into usable energy) and without it, the plants could never survive.

When the plants become well-established, though, it will be necessary to avoid nitrogen-rich fertilizers and to give them cooler temperatures, otherwise their variegation will be barely evident. You can then use an all-purpose fertilizer such as 20-20-20 since a relative high proportion of nitrogen (the first of the three numbers) is still necessary to encourage healthy leaves and a symmetrical rosette.

If the leaves begin to lose their variegation, however, fertilizers with less nitrogen should be used. Once your plants have a good balance of variegation and green pigmentation, you can start thinking about growing them as show plants. In order to bring out the most intense leaf coloration while stimulating flowering, many growers use Peter's 5-50-17, a fertilizer especially developed for variegated plants. This should not be used for the entire life of the plants, since it doesn't contain enough nitrogen for healthy growth.

Switching fertilizers every few months is therefore a good idea. If your plants once again become too heavily variegated, you can fertilize them with fish emulsion for a while until their leaves are greener.

As far as temperature is concerned, excess heat also caused the leaves to green up. When kept at 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees F.) or above, the variegated areas of the leaf gradually diminish while the green increases. On the other hand, variegation becomes more prominent in cooler weather. This is why it is so often recommended to put all variegated plants on the lowest shelf of your light garden where temperatures are slightly cooler.

All variegated plants appreciate an intense light source. Crown variegated plant will become vibrant showing off the yellow centers when grown close to the lights.

A FEW CULTURAL HINTS

When hybridizing with variegated plants if you wish to obtain variegated babies, use a variegated plant as the mother plant.

When propagating variegated plants, use leaves from the second row of leaves if possible since these are the young, strong leaves and they will produce off-spring more easily than older leaves. It is also important to choose a leaf which has a good amount of chlorophyll (green) in it so it is able to bring nutrients to the root ball and babies. 

Remember to place variegated plants on the bottom shelf of the light garden and in the center of the light for a more intense amount of light.

This "accident of nature" which occurred in one of Tommie Lou Oden's baby plants brought all of this to us. When admiring one of your own variegated plants, take a minute to think of the beauty we would not be seeing if that one baby had not decided on its own to become something very special.