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African Violets

Optimara Little saphire - streaks?

7 years ago

I just saw the light blue streaks in these blooms... What is it?! I didn't think Little Saphire had anything like this but there's one on two different blooms!

First bloom: they are on the lower petal.

Second bloom... On the upper petal.

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Comments (4)

AnneCecilia z5 MI
7 years ago
I don't what it is, Suyoder, but I had a NOID solid blue trailer do this suddenly - once. The streaks were quite pronounced and showed up on most of the flowers. I thought perhaps it had sported, but as those streaked flowers finished blooming the next blooms were solid again. While it continued to throw a bloom here or there with one or two pale streaks in it, never again did it bloom like that with all the blooms affected as long as I grew it. If someone knows why, I'd love to know.
joyfulsu thanked AnneCecilia z5 MI
joyfulsu
Original Author
7 years ago
Thank you Anne! Bummer I was hoping they were here to stay! :D
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joyfulsu
Original Author
7 years ago
Makes me curious, if I would cross pollinate those two flowers, do you think they would bloom those streaks again? Hmm. :D wish I was a hybridzer! I don't know the first thing about pollinating these. I got a seedpod successfully once but it never came up when I sowed it so I've avoided trying ever since. :]
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Hyn Patty, Western NC Mountains (USA)
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
If it's a fluke of culture they'll go away. If it's sporting into a fantasy, then the streaks will stay and continue to show up here on out. No point in selfing the plant to make seed this early. Wait and see. Even if it turns out to go fantasy on you, producing seed will still give you mostly duds and a whole lot of baby plants to throw out or give away so that's a big waste of your time and space.

Better to test it with putting down a leaf instead BUT you need to wait until it's been making those flowers consistently for enough months that you can be sure the leaves have grown out since the flowers started to show the streaks. /Then/ if the leaf babies also carry the trait, you need to take a leaf from one of them and test it for a third generation before you know if it's stable.
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joyfulsu thanked Hyn Patty, Western NC Mountains (USA)

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