Read on Twitter
A day late but let's have a plant "ghost story". Pothos is prob one of the most common house plants. You probably have one (or more!) at your place just like me. But do you know our pothos could possible be genetically identical to each other if they are the same cultivars? 1/4
Although being a flowering plant #Araceae, the last reported flowering of pothos flowering BOTH in wild and in cultivation was...
1962!!!!
Since then, all the pothos were propagated through cutting (i.e. the daughter plant has the same genetic makeup as the mother plant). 2/4
1962!!!!
Since then, all the pothos were propagated through cutting (i.e. the daughter plant has the same genetic makeup as the mother plant). 2/4
But mutations still happen, which resulted in diff cultivars of pothos. E.g. some cultivars have green-white mosaic looking leaves, and they (at least some of them) are due to mutations in the chlorophylls of some cells and thus they appear to be white than green. 3/4
Later people found out the mutations that led to pothos stopped flowers, one of them being a gene involved in the plant hormone gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis. By spraying GA on the plant, it's possible to make the pothos flower again! Further read: Hung et al 2016 Sci Rep. 4/4
