Unusual Hybrid Sparaxis
Nathan Lange (Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:51:15 PDT)
This Sparaxis looks like a beautiful example of a harmless
transposable element affecting some key enzyme in the biosynthetic
pathway of the red pigmentation in the petals. As with most animals,
active and inactive transposable elements can account for over half
of some plant genomes. When they cause variegated flowers like in
this Sparaxis, transposable elements are frequently mistaken for
viral infections. Morning glories and petunias are classic examples.
Nathan
At 11:58 AM 6/12/2013, you wrote:
This was posted to whatisthisplant on Reddit, it is growing in the
Berkeley Hills area. I have never seen anything like it; could the
pattern be due to a virus?
Chad Schroter