leaf forms in Wendy's Gold and Virus questions

[mark smyth]

While in England I saw fabulous Wendy's Golds with wide plicate leaves. My plants have narrow wavy leaves. What are the leaves like on your plants?

[Paddy Tobin]

Wavy foliage here.
Paddy

[loes]

Wave Leaves here too

[Alan_b]

I think wavy is a given; my leaves look a bit broader.

[mark smyth]

Alan your's are broad. I should have photographed and bought the plants at Jo's house.

[Alan_b]

I wonder if Wendy's Gold has been chipped and twin-scaled so much that there have been some mutations so not all the population is the same?   

[johnw]

I wonder if Wendy's Gold has been chipped and twin-scaled so much that there have been some mutations so not all the population is the same?

Alan

This has certainly happened with rhododendrons propagated by conventional means.

Roseum Elegans gave Roseum One gave Roseum Two but after many long years.  The latter a bit better than the first.

jhonw

[annew]

Mine are wavy. I'm intrigued my the mechanism by which vegetatively propagated plants can show such variation from the parent - and I'm thinking specifically of Trym-type snwdrops. Does anybody have any theories?

[daveyp1970]

Mutations happern also in the micro proping of Hostas

[annew]

But why should a mutation be more likely in bulbils produced by chipping than in bulbils produced by normal offsetting?

[KentGardener]

There are more of them?

[johnw]

Mine are wavy. I'm intrigued my the mechanism by which vegetatively propagated plants can show such variation from the parent - and I'm thinking specifically of Trym-type snwdrops. Does anybody have any theories?

Wobbly genes?

johnw

[RolloP]

Trym and similar varieties are infected by virus. Trym has a strain of Cucumber Mosaic Virus and a Poty Virus. Trymlet and South Hayes are infected with CMV only. I am sure it is this strain of CMV which confers the outer petal markings to these varieties.  It seems that the virus may not be evenly distributed
throughout the bulb tissue, so that there may be sections of the bulb which have greatly reduced or no virus present in some chips, thus, a proportion of the progeny will "revert" to a non coloured outer petal.
No virus has been found in Wendys Gold, or in any ordinary yellow variety so far tested.

[Maggi Young]

Ah, Rollo, good to have you reappear with your specialist knowledge..... thanks!

[Alan_b]

Trym and similar varieties are infected by virus. Trym has a strain of Cucumber Mosaic Virus and a Poty Virus. Trymlet and South Hayes are infected with CMV only....

That's very interesting, Rollo, do you have a reference to the source publication for this information?  I would like to read up on this work.