Pleione : "sudden death" and discussion on "clone"

[sjusovare]

Aren't we overcomplicating the matter?
Divisions (or bulbils for that matter) originating from the same clone would all look alike and would in my opinion all react the same way if the environment is exactly the same...

   Actually, it is true if the environment is exactly the same, however it is not true, as you showed, if the light, the water, the fertilisers, the compost, the temperatures and probably many other parameters I do not think about, are not the same.
   What I meant is that once 2 divisions (or bulbils) have been grown into different conditions from one another, they will not behave the same way even when later they are put again in similar conditions, and that is also true for further divisions issued from those two.
   This thread was started about "sudden death" which seem to occure in some clones and not in others (providing those are really clones, which is not sure), and I merely tried to say that considering the number of hands the bulbs were passing in, I think that it is not so much the clones which are to be considered but who had them prior to you and how they've been grown before.

[rob krejzl]

In human clones (OK, identical twins), epigenetic factors are said to be the main source of difference between individuals, and the amount of epigenetic difference increases with the length of time spent apart (i.e. in different environments). There are even studies investigating the differences between left and right sides of the body (many genetic diseases show asymmetric expression). How large the contribution of epigentic factors to phenotypic difference actually is may be hard to quantify, but it is a real factor. Another factor, which seems to have been forgotten, is somatic mutation - any clone which is propagated often enough should collect a few of these.

[johanneshoeller]

We in Austria have discussed the problems with Pleione forrestii and others, too. Most mean the losses are a result of a wrong cuture (too warm, too long growth periode,...) or of for the Pleiones (in Europe) unknown fungi which destroy them. Some clones (higher or lower locatins) have more or less problems.