Half and Half daffodil

Julie Gauthier sent us an email via the daffodilusa contact form about a daffodil she found in her garden. She does not hybridize, but she found this daffodil was striking and sent us photos.

She confirmed both the perianth and corona are half-and-half.

What do you think about this?  Does this bloom have a virus or is it not a real bloom?

 

16 comments for “Half and Half daffodil

  1. It doesn’t look like a virus.

     

    I can’t fathom how this is possible, as I’ve never seen it happen in ANY kind of flower.

     

    If someone knows, please share!

  2. Wow! That’s just amazing. If we get some good answers, can I please use this photo and the answers for the June “Ask the Experts” column?

    —Jolene

    Sent from my iPhone

  3. Matt,
    I posted this photo on Daffnet a couple of year’s ago.
    Dave

    This phenomonen is quite common in Dahlias

  4. Hello Matt,

    This does happen in nature occasionaly, type of ‘sporting’. I have had it in gladioli – with 8 florets on one spike

    and have seen it on camellias. It will not repeat again next year which is a pity as it is very striking. I am sure it

    is not a virus.

    Spud Brogden,
    Normanby.New Zealand.

  5. That’s even more bizarre.

    I don’t understand it… chemistry is not synthesized in that fraction of the blossom.

    Proposed mechanisms?

     

  6. Mr. Adams, I am especially interested in the formation of extra/fewer petals, and have noticed that you have much experience with this. May I email you off-site to discuss possible causes?

  7. I may have posted this before. It wasn’t marked or kept and I never saw it again.

  8. When you pick a daffodil, and then split the stem of the daffodil, then if you put each section of the split stem into a different test tube that contains food coloring the flower will show similar total color changes in the petals. If you will use red, blue and then green in the three different tubes then you can end up with a tri-colored bloom. White daffodils show true food colors better. Interesting that in the USA the red food coloring appears to plug up xylem tubes faster than the blue and green so possibly the red color particles are larger and or they clump together more in these xylem tubes.

    If you do the split stems with any of the paper whites, then you will have some of the blooms with a single color, but you will often have a couple of blooms that are split on the color.

    OK since we know that you can get these distinct color changes within the flowers with food coloring then “what if” there is something going on down inside the daffodil bulb, where the base of the stem connects to the bulb tissue, where there is a partial defect or bottle neck in the xylem tubes that prevents “color” particles from making the transition and traveling up to the petals? What if we really do not understand how color is truly produced within the bulbs and then transported from the bulb to the bud, then enhanced/concentrated as the stem elongates, bud enlarges, fills out and becomes show worthy. Why do some bi-colors reverse? Why does Ice Follies and so many other varieties radically change trumpet colors as they fully mature? Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas


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  9. First, many thanks to Mr. Blake and Ms. Gauthier for starting this thread.

    Mr. Kridler — such an eloquent description of a fascinating concept!

    What if the coloration stems from the bulb, being continuously “wicked” up into the flower?

  10. Could this be a sectoral chimera, where part of the plant is different genetically?

    But I have definitely seen precisely this sort of thing you have pictured, in the past on a daffodil though I can’t recall when or where.

    Something else I have seen, is in Erlicheer where half (or fewer) of the florets on the same stem revert back to the single form. Offsets coming from that portion of the bulb will remain normal Grand Primos in the future.

    Watch the plant next year!

    Best wishes,

    Bill the Bulb Baron (William R.P. Welch)

    website: http://www.billthebulbbaron.com/availability.htm

    William R.P. Welch, 1031 Cayuga Street, Apt B, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, USA (831) 236-8397

  11. Sorry folks, this sort of thing is not unususal and is well understood. That has happened is that there was a mutation in one of the cells during the early development of the flower bud. When cells initiating the flower bud were dividing a mistake was made in one of the genes controlling color. Some of the cells carried the mutation and others did not. It will probably not happen again next season unless the mutation occured in the cells making a new side bulb. As some cells have the mutation and others not one cannot predict how much of the flower will be different. Irregular variegation in many plants like Pothos and Clivias are under similar controls, as are also striped roses. In those two cases the plant is a mosaic similar to a tortoise shell cat. In plants where the mutation occus earlier during developemnt the entire flower might have a different color or be doubled.. That is how the new double cults. were derived from Tete-a-Tete. You might know the term SPORT to describe this sort of thing.

  12. All,

    As the mechanism(s) are well understood in the botanical world but alas not in the realm of the average grower nor daffodilian, sounds like an article with a collection of fun photographs is in order to add to the permanent daffodil record for the general membership…

    -Sara
    Sara L. Van Beck
    Atlanta

  13. Apart from the discussion on flower colouring I now understand how a sport occurs. It always seemed impossible to me. I just thought that a stray seed had dropped near the parent bulb.

    Thanks Harold.

  14. After listening to Frans Veul in Nashville. I’m especially interested in what tissue culture does. He hinted that it wasn’t a reliable propagation technique. Yet, he didn’t completely discount the phenotype variability opportunities either.

    frank

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