White gemmae?

[jonnyq]

Hmm... So, looking at a pot of my spaced-out D. roseana (D. palacea ssp. roseana) pygmies.. There's one single plant which is producing white gemmae. The leaves on this plant look identical to the leaves on all of the other plants, but is gemmae appear to be devoid(?) of chlorophyll?

Has anyone else had this phenomenon occur with their plants? (Pictures tomorrow or later in the week, time permitting...)

I mean, I'd love to pot these white gemmae up and see what happens next year, but if they're bereft of chlorophyll, my guess would be they would fail to develop healthy plants... Would stand to reason, no?

 

[Not a Number]

Without chlorophyll the plantlets will die as soon as the nutrient supplies in the gemma are exhausted. The same thing happens with chlorophyll free seedlings that often result from hybridization.

 

[jonnyq]

Thx for the reply, NaN!

I figured as much, though I'll admit that I was surprised... With hybridized seedlings, there are genetic recombination events and incompatibility that I could see causing the loss/inactivation of chlorophyll production, but with pygmy gemmae, my understanding was that gemmae are modified leaves that form exact genetic clones of the source plant. So, I wouldn't have expected that a plant that creates normal, chlorophyllous leaves would produce gemmae that are achlorophyllous, as there shouldn't be any genetic recombination occurring? (Is my reasoning way off?)

 

[Not a Number]

Possibly a mutation or some sort of damage from insects, fungus or chemicals. Tag the mother plant by staking next to it with a pin or toothpick and see what it does next year.