Mirabilis jalapa
John Grimshaw (Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:36:13 PDT)

The multicoloured flowers of Mirabilis jalapa (pronounced, invariably, in
England with a J :) ), in whatever form they are (i.e several colours in one
flower or different coloured flowers on the same plant), are caused by
transposons or jumping genes. See Wikipedia for further info on how they
work. Essentially they cause mini-mutations during the colour production
process.

Jim Waddick mentioned Ipomoea 'Flying saucers' and roses as other plants
with similarly flaky flowers, but one could add Geranium pratense 'Striatum'
and various antirrhinums to the list. Other factors causing variation in
flower colour may be virus, as in tulips (which probably works in much the
same way as transposons) and possibly tissue chimaeras.

John Grimshaw

Dr. John M. Grimshaw
Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL53 9NP

Tel. 01242 870567
----- Original Message -----
From: "piaba" <piabinha@yahoo.com>
To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:04 PM
Subject: [pbs] Mirabilis jalapa

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