a unique variety of African violet. Occasionally called “pinwheel” or “striped” blooms. Suckers are the only way to reproduce these plants. Leaves cannot be used to spread them. Only plants of these types are offered for sale. Color schemes and patterns are distinctive. All plants are promised real blooms.
White line and a white-green edging surround a semidouble fuchsia ruffled star. Quilted, ruffled, and medium green. typical foliage
Blue star, both single and semidouble, with a broad white centre stripe and a geneva edge. Standard foliage is medium green, serrated, and quilted.
Wow! Coral double stars with blue fantasy dots, dashes, and centre stripes highly outlined. Additionally, the flower has a darker coral eye. This small-growing standard has basic, dark green foliage with a red underside.
strips with a royal purple centre and stars at the top in pastel lavender. Light and dark lavender or purple dashes are used to create this regal centre stripe. The semi-double to double fluffy big blooms adorn symmetrical black foliage. This outstanding bloomer is unquestionably the “Queen of Chimeras.” Standard.
A chimaera plant: what is it?
In botany, a chimera—also written Chimaera—is a plant or plant element that is a combination of two or more genetically distinct cell types.
A graft hybrid, or chimaera, is a bud that forms during plant grafting at the intersection of the scion and stock and contains tissues from both plants. Even though these chimaeras have occasionally surfaced in the past, German botanist Hans Winkler was the first to take them seriously in 1907. In his initial experiments, black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) were grafted together, and at the nexus, all but one of the shoots were either nightshade or tomato. This shoot, which emerged at the junction of the two tissues, had the characteristics of both nightshade and tomato. Because this shoot contained elements of two different species, Winkler dubbed it a chimaera. He gave some of his graft hybrids unique names in later experiments. It was later proven by another botanist, Erwin Baur, that the two plants Winkler had given special names to were made of a core of tomato and a skin of nightshade that was one and two cell layers thick, respectively, and that the other two plants were made of a core of nightshade and a skin of tomato that was one and two cell layers thick. Thus, in a chimaera, the constituent parts retain their individuality while being assembled at the growth point in a specific pattern.
Chimeras can also develop when cells in an expanding area undergo a mutation. The new type of tissue may clearly differ from the previous type (for example, if it is colourless instead of green), but far more frequently, the difference is only noticeable upon close examination, such as when the number of chromosomes is changed.
How are chimaeras reproduced?
- “The distinctive “pinwheel” or “radial” stripe may be seen all around the Chimera African Violet flower.
- Each lobe of the African Violet flower petal has a repeating pattern of two-color stripes (bi-color).
- The single flower bears multiple chimaera stripes or bands, each of which is coloured differently.
- The stripes and the spaces between the stripes on each African Violet chimaera bloom are of the same colour.
- This results in stripes of one distinct colour that alternate with stripes of another different colour on each petal of the chimaera African violet flower.
- “Chimera Sport flowers include African violet flowers, which are typically bicolor and have coloured edges or fantasy flowers that mutate to create a sport or chimaera.
- Chimeras are a genetic mutation that occasionally occurs in nature and is typically found in bi-color, fantasy, or flowers with unusual edges.
- Two separate forms of genetic material are present in the tissues of chimaera flower stems.
- Chimera flowers have two layers of cells within their tissues.
- The colour of the bloom’s overall bloom is determined by one layer of cells, and the colour of the stripes is determined by another layer of cells. The stripes can be a different colour or a variation of the bloom colour.
- When a cross section of a Chimera bloom stem was taken, the mutated cells were visible on the inner second layer of cells and the cells inherited from the mother plant were seen on the outer layer of cells.
- The bloom’s overall colour is determined by the cells in its outer layer, while the stripes’ colour is determined by the cells in its inner layer.
- Only bloom stalks, suckers, or crown decapitation can be used to reproduce African Violet chimaeras.
- As with other violets, African Violet chimaeras cannot be grown from leaves. Visit our article, “African Violet Leaf Propagation: How to Produce Baby Plantlets?,” for more information on leaf propagation.
- Carefully cut the bloom / flower stem from the plant in order to generate chimaeras from them. Choose a bloom or flower stem with a pair of leaves on it. Remove the bloom or bloom bud, leaving only the stalk of the bloom. Cut the stalks off at an inch long intervals, then gently plant them in damp soil mixture, plain perlite, or sphagnum moss. (To learn more about potting mix for African violets, see our article titled “African Violet Soil/Potting Mix”).
- Put the pot in a ziploc bag that is tightly closed. New young plantlets will begin to form in a month.
- Using a sucker plucker, carefully remove the suckers from the plant and repot them in a moist soil mixture to propagate chimaeras. Baby plantlets ought to emerge after a month if you put the pot in a zip-top bag. (See our post “African Violet Suckers: What Are They and Removal?” for additional details on how to get rid of and re-pot African Violet suckers.)
- to decapitate crowns in order to breed chimaeras. Using a clean, sharp knife or scalpel, first cut the plant’s crown from the stem. Repot this crown so it can grow once more. Keep in an airtight ziploc bag. Work on the plant’s base that contains the remaining stub now.
- Keep the primary plant’s base in a ziploc baggie that has been securely closed after the crown was severed from it. New suckers should start to grow after a month. Before removing the suckers, give them time to grow big.
- Propagation is simple if your chimaera African violet plant is a trailer. Simply divide the growing crown and pot it up, or carefully remove a growing crown and pot it again.
- It’s important to keep in mind that not all suckers will produce chimeric flowers. Make sure the plant is a genuine chimaera flower by waiting till it blooms.
What Takes Place When a Leaf from an African Violet Chimera Flower Plant Is Placed Down?
- Most of the time, if you place a leaf from an African Violet chimaera flower plant down, you will obtain a bloom that is one solid colour. The solid-colored bloom will show the chimera’s predominant hue.
- If you have 8 children from a single leaf, one of them might be a chimaera flower. The remainder will be various tones of the primary solid hue.
- An African Violet chimaera plant may return to its natural bi-color or solid colour bloom if it is under duress.
- Like other violets, chimaeras favour temperatures about 70°F and routine watering. Don’t let the earth get entirely dry.
- Keep in mind to routinely trim the plant, remove suckers as they appear, and re-pot them in new soil. If there are too many suckers developing, the plant may get stressed.
- Your African Violet chimaera bloom may have returned to being solid or bi-colored if the plant was unhealthy when it was originally transplanted, it experienced dramatic temperature changes, or the soil experienced dry-wet cycles.
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How is a leaf chimaera reproduced?
The majority of African violets can be vegetatively vegetated to generate plants that are similar to the plant from which the leaf cutting was obtained. This is so because every cell in the leaf cutting has the exact same genetic makeup as every other cell. With “chimaeras,” this is not the case. These plants have developed plant tissues with various genetically varying cell types. As a result, plants grown from leaf cuttings often differ from the original plant from which the cutting was taken.
Although any plant with this genetic trait is considered a chimaera, the term “pinwheel flowered variations” is often used to refer to African violets because they frequently don’t grow “true to description” from leaf cuttings. We have examples of them in our catalogue (go to the “African violets section via the links in this web-site).
First, remove the plant’s middle crown. Cut away the crown with a razor or a sharp knife. This crown can be re-rooted if it is done carefully (see step #5). On the plant that is still alive, leave a few leaves.
Step 2: A violet without a centre. Simply a “stump with a few leaves attached,” to put it simply. As with your other violets, continue to take good care of this one. In the unlikely event that a bloom stalk develops, it can be cut off.
Step 3: From the decrowned plant, suckers emerge. You should eventually, after about two to three months, notice little plantlets sprouting on top of and all around the “stump that was left after decrowning. When sufficiently large, these “suckers” will be cut off to create new plants.
Step 4: Take the sucker out of the stump. Remove any sucker that appears to be large enough for you to handle easily using a sharp knife or razor. You do not have to trash the stump after removing them because it may continue to grow suckers that can be collected in the future. Compared to suckers emerging from under leaves or dirt, suckers coming from the stump are more likely to produce plants that are genetically similar to the original plant.
Fifth step: Root the sucka. Put a little soil mixture in a pot (or your rooting mix, but this will necessitate a subsequent potting into your regular mix). Once more, moisten the ground without making it soggy, then use the point of a pencil to make a little “divot or hole” in the earth (our favourite tool). After that, insert the sucker into this little hole and compact the soil around it. Place the potted sucker in a transparent, covered container or plastic “baggie (such as a sandwich bag) and leave it there in a warm, sunny location. Avoid placing the sucker in an area that is too warm or in direct sunlight because doing so could lead it to decay. The sucker should have rooted by this time and can be taken out of its protective container.
Most suckers will produce blooms that are identical to those of the parent plant, however not all of them will. Make sure you’ve rooted the original crown you removed from the plant in step 1 because this will continue to bloom according to variety. This is only for safety.
Remember that any violet can be grown in this way, although there is little reason to do so for nonchimeral types of violets that will reproduce true from leaf cuttings as it takes more time and results in fewer plantlets (which is why chimaeras cost more).
What appearance does a chimaera plant have?
A plant that combines two or more genotypes in the layers that make up the shoot tip is known as a chimaera.
a typical type of variation. The leaf seems to be both white and green (or yellow). This is due to the absence of the green pigment chlorophyll in the white or yellow parts of the leaf. This is due to layers in the meristem that are either genetically capable of producing chlorophyll or unable of doing so.
Other chimaeras include modifications to the fruit’s skin, such as colour changes in apples or fuzzy skin in peaches.
Apical meristems, marginal meristems, and vascular cambium are all places where meristems can be found in plants. They are also found near the terminals of roots and shoots.
Small, highly cytoplasmic, divisible cells with conspicuous nucleoli are characteristics of meristem cells.
The apical meristem can be seen in a photomicrograph of a shoot tip that is growing two leaves.
The shoot tip or apical meristem of a plant is composed of comparatively independent layers.
The body or corpus of the stem is covered in cell layers, or tunica, according to the tunica-corpus theory of meristem organisation.
Typically, the dicot shoot meristem is divided into three separate layers: LI, LII, and LIII.
Typically, epidermal cells are produced by LI. The gametes and the subsequent inner layer of cells are provided by LII. LIII cells develop into the vascular system’s innermost cells.
A meristem with distinct genetics in one or more of its layers is referred to as a chimaera.
Chimeras come in a variety of forms, such as:
In this kind of chimaera, the mutation is present throughout the entire meristem (in this case, the LII layer).
By means of anticlinal cell divisions, a layer’s entire population of cells undergoes a mutation, making it genetically distinct from the other two layers.
An example of a “sandwich” periclinal chimaera with two normal layers surrounding a centrally altered LII layer is shown to the right.
The LI and LIII in this instance produce cells with typical chlorophyll production, however the LII produces no chlorophyll and is colourless, resulting in a variegated leaf.
Because the green LI layer that makes up the epidermis only covers the centre of the leaf and does not reach the leaf margin, a colourless layer in the LII results in a marginal leaf variegation.
Because there isn’t enough LI tissue around the margins, the white LII layer can be seen. The most typical variegation pattern found on dicot leaves is this one.
Similar to the periclinal chimaera, mutant cells are restricted to one meristem layer and only cover a fraction of the cell layer.
This period is frequently one of transition, during which the meristem will either shed the mutation or become a stable periclinal chimaera.
You can see in this apple that the epidermisLI portion of the skin has altered to produce red pigment (anthocyanin).
A sectorial chimaera is a sort of chimaera that is generally unstable. In this chimaera, mutant cells are present in one-half of each stratum of the meristem. It is simple to understand why this particular chimaera is unstable.
Keep in mind that the meristem’s cells divide by anticlinal divisions (see the cell division section for more information).
Because of this, as the plant grows, regular cell division typically results in an entirely white or entirely coloured meristem.
Redbud (Cercis canadensis) seedling displaying sectorial chimaera pattern. You may observe how the pattern alters as the plant develops a new leaf by paying great attention.
The following leaf reveals more of the leaf’s mutations as well as the meristem layers. Arrow 2 is a green leaf with all of its layers. Arrow 3 depicts the LI as being pigment-free and the LII as being visible through light green. The entire white sector is indicated by Arrow 4.
The stability of plants with chimeral meristems varies. Variegated plants frequently revert to having only green or non-pigmented leaves. These plants require occasional pruning to eliminate non-chimeral stems in order to preserve the chimeral variegation.
The periclinal chimaera euonymus is relatively unstable and frequently displays all-green or all-yellow stems. The all-green stems can swiftly supplant variegated stems because they contain more chlorophyll.