The flowers on the motherplant and the keiki are not the same!

[Saiva]

My father has had a Phalaenopsis hybride for 7 years now. It has produced 3 keikis during that time and no. 1 and no. 3 have the same type of flowers as the motherplant.

But keiki no. 2 got different flowers! It's blooming right now for the second time and the flowers are still different.

This is the motherplant:


This is keiki no. 2:




I thought that the keiki ALWAYS got the same flowers as the mother plant but not in this case...

Is it common that they get different colours?

Any ideas?

[kavanaru]

Actually, this should not be the case... A Keiki is a clon of the mother plant, and have exactly the same genome, therefore the flowers should be identical... Are you sure you did not mixed up the labels?

ok, I must admit there is also a chance that a mutation has occurred during the formation of the Keiki, and the genome is slightly different to that of the mother plant. This is very improbable, but not impossible...

and as final comment: I think the flowers of the Keiki N°2 are much nicer than those of the mother plant

[susiep]

That is strange. Are these keikis still attached to the mother plant or separated?

[Saiva]

kavanaru

My father only had this Phalaenopsis and keiki no. 1 at this time so he definetly did not mix it up.

I think that keiki no. 2 is much nicer too!

susiep

Keiki no. 1 and 2 are separated. Keiki no.3 is still attached to the mother plant.

[unhappykat]

Could lust be a lucky mutation, happens once in a great while, tou usually think of it when you grow Ivy or sedums who often have these mutations. I dont know if the mutation is nicer than the mother though, I like stripes.

[priz_m]

I have no scientific explanation, couldn't it just take after its "grandparents"

[Ross]

Only thing I can offer is that commonly, there are two seperate plants in a pot when purchased. A few turn out to be different plants. The nursery doesn't care because it was trying to sell blooming plants as if they were "cut flowers". I wonder if there might have been two plants in the parent?

[dgenovese1]

Hi Saiva,
I think that it is definitely either a "lucky mutation" as Kat put it, or a separate plant in the pot as Ross pointed out sometimes happens.
I actually had that happen to me. I bought a phal in bloom, that produced what I thought was a basal keiki. When the basal keiki bloomed, it was soooo different that I knew it had to be a separate plant, only it grew much slower. When i repotted it after it finished blooming, I indeed had 2 separate plants rather than a single plant with 2 crowns.
I guess one way to rule out one way or the other would be to find out if the 3 keikis were stem props or basal keikis. If they were all stem props...meaning the keiki formed off of an old flower stem, then it is a "lucky mutation", otherwise it is probably a separate plant growing alongside the larger mother plant.

[Saiva]

They are all three from an old stem so I guess it's the mutation theory then!

So, what my father has got is a completely new hybride?

[Saiva]

Sadly he cut the keiki off the stem before it bloomed. What a wonderful picture it would have been if the mother plant and the keiki would have bloomed at the same time with different flowers!