TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk
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DrWurm
Californian in DC
What you have to understand is that each leaf does not have its own specific genetic code. There is only the genetic code of the whole plant. So no, just because a leaf is different, doesn't mean a cutting from that leaf will stabilize the mutation. You'll just get a genetic copy of the parent plant.
Jason
Jason
So what you are saying is after so many years all we have are about 160 miss hap's.. I sit and scratch my head....
Well I have some more photo's to post soon
Noddy
seedjar
Let's positive thinking!
That's not quite the case, Noddy. Each seed-grown VFT is genetically unique - it's people that decided a certain number (not sure where you got 160) were special.
The difference is that your plant didn't grow three traps on a leaf because of genetics. It was just a chance accident. It probably did that because, when the leaf was very young - too small to see with your eyes - it became damaged somehow, maybe by insects. Because it was so small that it didn't yet have a distinct trap on the end, the broken ends of the leaf all continued to grow and each frayed tip grew a copy of what it thought it was supposed to look like - a stem with a trap at the end. A similar process commonly results in deformities in frogs and other amphibians.
Think about what would happen if you badly broke your fingers at a young age - if you damaged your nerves, or blood vessels, or detached some muscles and the damage could not be repaired, your fingers would not be able to grow at the same rate as the rest of your body. They would lack the stimulation from exercise and nutrition from bloodflow that your body uses to develop. Or, to make a different analogy, in Japan they have square watermelons that fit neatly into a refrigerator. The watermelons are not genetically programmed to grow that way - when the watermelons are just beginning to bud, farmers put them into boxes so that as they grow they are confined to the box's shape. Sometimes, a "typical" VFT (again, remember that it's people that call them typical, not that that's how they're "supposed" to look) will grow something that looks like a cupped trap during an infestation of aphids or the like. But this does not mean it has changed genetically - just that the aphids were interfering with the VFT's natural growth.
~Joe
The difference is that your plant didn't grow three traps on a leaf because of genetics. It was just a chance accident. It probably did that because, when the leaf was very young - too small to see with your eyes - it became damaged somehow, maybe by insects. Because it was so small that it didn't yet have a distinct trap on the end, the broken ends of the leaf all continued to grow and each frayed tip grew a copy of what it thought it was supposed to look like - a stem with a trap at the end. A similar process commonly results in deformities in frogs and other amphibians.
Think about what would happen if you badly broke your fingers at a young age - if you damaged your nerves, or blood vessels, or detached some muscles and the damage could not be repaired, your fingers would not be able to grow at the same rate as the rest of your body. They would lack the stimulation from exercise and nutrition from bloodflow that your body uses to develop. Or, to make a different analogy, in Japan they have square watermelons that fit neatly into a refrigerator. The watermelons are not genetically programmed to grow that way - when the watermelons are just beginning to bud, farmers put them into boxes so that as they grow they are confined to the box's shape. Sometimes, a "typical" VFT (again, remember that it's people that call them typical, not that that's how they're "supposed" to look) will grow something that looks like a cupped trap during an infestation of aphids or the like. But this does not mean it has changed genetically - just that the aphids were interfering with the VFT's natural growth.
~Joe
