# Picture of white Pogostemon helferi



## defdac (May 10, 2004)

What is this? It's inside the leaves, so you can't rub it off.










Basic EI-fertilizing in a CO2-enriched 200 litres tank with three PMDD premixed 0.5 litre bottles:
Bottle 1: 7 tsp KNO3
Bottle 2: 0.8 tsp KH2PO4
Bottle 3: 1 tsp CSM+B, 0.8 tsp K2SO4 and 0.8 tsp MgSO4

20 mls of each 3 times a week which is about 5 ppm NO3, 0.5 ppm PO4, 0.1 ppm Fe.


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## Snake52 (Dec 15, 2006)

Albinism ??


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## Kelley (Aug 27, 2006)

Cool! I don't know much about aquariums, yet, but this is a little closer to my area, genetics! I hypothesise that what has occurred is a transposon has mobilised and inserting itself into one of the genes resposnsibel for plant pigment thus disrupting that gene's function. Transposons are jumping segments of DNA that hop from place to place within the genome. Different scenarios can activate and silence a transposon , depending on the type of transposon. If a transposon lands in a functioning gene, it will interrupt that gene, creating a mutation. This may be a stable mutation that you can propagate vegetatively. ( Please don't ask me how, I've never grown it. :wink 

This sort of thing occurs all the time in the horticultural world. For instance, many of the garden hostas that people cultivate get their beautiful leaf patterning from transposon-interruption of genes. Many people here have mentioned that the plant Hygrophila polysperma 'sunset' has it's interesting leaf pattern from a virus. Many transposons are actually mutated viruses. 

A cool little fact is that much of the genome of a plant is actually silenced transposon. The maize (corn) genome is comprised of an estimated 60% silent transposon. It does not code for any genes, but is, at least on the surface, junk DNA. The human genome is at least 40%, maybe higher. 

Cool Stuff! You should try to propagate this to see if it stable. Who knows? Maybe you'll be selling and trading P. helferi 'defdac' in a year! 


Kelley


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## nswhite (Aug 25, 2006)

Wow I've never seen anything like that before and a very good explanation from Kelly.


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

Its much more simple then above, dose more CSM+B and maybe a little extra iron. It will come back just fine. Happens to mine ever so often.


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## Kelley (Aug 27, 2006)

Hey, you can't blame a girl for trying. I get a little nerd-thusiastic about genetics. Just can't help myself!

Please listen to what Bigstick says. Unlike me, he has actually _grown_this plant!


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