Forum home Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

mutant tulip leaf/petal

sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

i thought it was a dropped petal as i was clearing up the blown petals but it is half leaf half petal, weird. Has anyone seen this before on a tulip?

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_2AZlW5E2CncAw-Wsbve7jiXaH8tgbnVRffJg7Pewow=w516-h419-no

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B6z8lnXSvXY/VVio_aApWrI/AAAAAAAAMBE/ktS_UmihHPo/w314-h419-no/20150517_154049.jpg

«1

Posts

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,697

    Could be a virus.

  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    thanks ceres i might google it in a minute and see if i can find a reason for it, the other leaves are perfectly healthy and normal and it flowered and dropped it's petals the same as the other ones of it's type, strange isn't it.

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,697

    Tulips never seem to last long before they develop some sort of disease problem, or maybe that's just mine.

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Maybe just fasciation. Not a virus.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FrannerzFrannerz Posts: 72
    It's a mutant !! Lol. I love it when plants to freaky things like that. I planted a load of sunflower seeds a year or so ago and they came up all greenery but no flower head they stayed Green all that year and i thought i had planted the seeds i had dried in the microwave, for bird feed, and had mutated them. Now they are growing Bell peppers.

    We think at some point I had composted some pepper off cuts and missed the pips. Lol
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    Frannerz - some sunflowers are perennials and don't flower the first year - that may have been 'the problem' with yours. image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,617

    Petals are modified leaves. Tulip flower heads look like leaves until they colour up. The freak leaf may be caused by a virus, insect damage  or adverse weather condition. If it repeats on that bulb next year, it would be a permanent mutation and probably worth propagating from.

  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    i had a look on google and only found one complicated article similar to what fidgetbones is saying about the petals being leaves really. I found only one image on google of another tulip like mine. Wouldn't know where to start propagating tulip bulbs.image

  • ladygardener2ladygardener2 Posts: 371

    It's interesting to come across this thread as I've had a few Tulips with leaves/petals like the pic you've posted. All bought from different companies, all of them white or lemon and all planted into either pots with fresh compost or into the flower beds. I did plant dozens of Tulips last year and of all of them maybe 5 or 6 have turned out like yours. Interesting.

  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    this one was a cerese pink fading to white on the edges of petals, i planted loads too but only had the one. I expect everyone will find them now when they have a look at theirs image

Sign In or Register to comment.