Lucky you! Looks like you've got a chimera. Propagate it through leaf in the usual way to see if you get stripes (like Bob's Omega). When a sucker develops, propagate that as well to see if it remains true.

Nancy

Hi,
If it doesn't bloom like a chimera from a leaf, I would try cutting out the center of the crown and let suckers develop from that crown. Don't forget to root the crown you cut out.
The plant looks like a beautiful chimera.
Fred in NJ

Wouldn't I love a surprise like that. It is just beautiful! tish

My one and only plant is also a Maine. When I saw this excellent photograph I pulled mine off the shelf and made comparisons. It looks almost the same but with slightly less depth of coloring on the edges. Mine is also more 'purple-ish' in color.

Now comes the questions. Please explaing the difference between an AV and a chimera? And how can an AV become a chimera? And if and when that happens, at what point do you know it is now a chimera? Confused....as usual!

Chimeras are genetic mutations. A chimera will have two cells where "normal" AVs have only one. The two cells provide the contrasting color.

You are more likely to find a chimera in your plant room if you have lots of fantasy plants. I have found two but they are not special, very similar to other lavender with darker lavender stripes.

Nancy

Anyone who has tried to take a picture of african violets, especially blue & purple colored ones know the problem of the colors. My digital camera would totally distort the colors, it was very frustrating. The closest I can get to the true color is taking the pictures in the sun, even then it is often off a little, making the purple look more bluish than they really are. Janice

Thanks for the 'technical explanation' (Robi...)but I can't see cell's, only colors. If 1 cell = 1 color, then am I too assume then that an AV with contrasting colors has two DNA cells and is a chimera? More confused....

so any two colored AV is a chimera?? I thought it had something to do with a pinwheel stripe?? Now I am really confused.

Is this a chimera then??

Tracy
{{gwi:360570}}

Tracy,
I think your pretty plant might come under the heading of a fantasy with possibly a geneiva type edge, but not a chimera. One quick way to see what a chimera is to go to EBAY and put in chimera. Most of the ones listed are correctly identified as being a chimera, there are a few that accidently get into that group that are not. So sort of look around and see the diffent color combinations and how the colors are sort of striped on the flowers. Janice

My understanding of Av genetics is more than a bit fuzzy, but I'll give it a shot. Chimera AVs have two sets of DNA, and they express this through stripes on the flowers (more rarely through the foliage); they're always 'pinwheel' -- stripes down the middle of the petals, and the main color on the sides.

One set of DNA is in the 'skin' of the plant, and the other is in the inside tissues. When you grow babies from leaves, the new plants grow from the external tissue, which means it only gets one set of DNA, and therefore one color. When you grow plants from suckers and the crown, obviously it gets both sets.

This whole arrangement is pretty unstable, and plants can revert to one or the other color, especially when stressed (you forget to water, bug attack, etc.).

Got it?

Korina the Konfused
~embrace the confusion~

ÂNever trust anything that can think for itself if you canÂt see *where it keeps its brain*! ~Arthur Weasley