Amy Foss PLNT-351 Winter 2015 Prof. D.J. Donnelly, McGill Plant Science

Peperomia and Variegation

Species used: Peperomia obtusifolia (Wildtype and a variegated variety)

Techniques used: Leaf cuttings & stem cuttings

These techniques can be applied to any Peperomia species. Leaf cuttings can also be applied to African violets, begonia rex, snake plants, panda plants and jade plants, among many others. Stem cuttings can similarly be used with many other herbaceous species, but also some woody species.

Variegation Leaf Cuttings

Variegation refers to the appearance of A leaf blade or whole leaf (blade and differently coloured zones, often in irregular petiole) are used to grow a new plant. In blotches or stripes, on the leaves, and leaf cuttings, adventitious* buds, shoots, sometimes stems, of a plant. Variegation and roots form at the base of the leaf, or can arise in multiple ways; the type of along its midrib. The planted leaf provides variegation displayed by Peperomia arises resources for the adventitious organs but from the production of chimeras. Chimeras does not become a part of the new plant. form when two or more genetically different cells are present in the same Stem Cutting organ. The non-green coloured cells arise A piece of stem with at least one node (bud) from defectively mutated plastids that lost can be used as a stem cutting. Since these their chlorophyll. Some chimeras are stable cuttings contained a potential shoot system and easily propagated (periclinal), while (bud) they only need to form adventitious others (mericlinal and sectorial) are roots; for this reason, stem cuttings are unstable, easily revert to the wildtype more likely to maintain the variegated phenotype when propagated (ie. no loss of phenotype. chlorophyll). Amy Foss PLNT-351 Winter 2015 Prof. D.J. Donnelly, McGill Plant Science

*Adventitious organs = organs produced by reversion of parenchyma cells to more primitive cells Supplementary Readings

Hartmann HT, Kester DE, Davies FT Jr, Geneve RL. 2014. Plant propagation principles and practices (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

Mathieu G. 2014. The Internet Peperomia Reference. http://www.peperomia.net/horticulture.asp

The Royal Horticultural Society. 2015. Leaf Cuttings. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=427.

Evans E, Blazich F. 1999. Plant propagation by stem cuttings: instructions for the home gardener. http://content.ces.ncsu.edu/plant-propagation-by-stem-cuttings-instructions-for- the-home-gardener.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Raina Fan for giving a tutorial on video production, to greenhouse management for allowing me to use the space and materials, and to Professor Donnelly for supervising me as a special topics student.