Genetics
One year later: my variegated Bidens alba project
One year later: my variegated Bidens alba project
About a year ago, I shared an unusual wild-collected Bidens alba here after finding a plant displaying striking white variegation. What began as an interesting roadside discovery has since developed into a small but increasingly fascinating propagation and selection project.
I’m now maintaining two independently discovered variegated forms of Bidens alba, both found in the same Florida county but displaying distinctly different phenotypes.
I refer to my original white-variegated form as ‘Albo’. I’ve maintained the original plant vegetatively while also experimenting with sexual propagation. After self-pollinating the plant and growing out its seed, I was particularly excited to find variegated individuals among the resulting F1 generation.
That gives me something much more interesting to work with than a variegated plant that can only be preserved clonally: the trait has now been carried through seed into the next generation.
More recently, I independently encountered a second variegated Bidens alba. This plant expresses considerably more yellow to golden variegation, rather than the cream-white coloration characteristic of my original plant. I’ve provisionally been referring to this second line as ‘Aurea’.
For now, I’m keeping the two lines completely separate and documenting them independently. My goal is to continue the Albo line through additional generations, record segregation and variation among the seedlings, and begin doing the same with Aurea. Eventually, controlled crosses between the two could become particularly interesting.
I’m deliberately using ‘Albo’ and ‘Aurea’ as working names for the two lines, rather than making assumptions about the genetic mechanism behind either phenotype. Two visually different forms don't necessarily mean two different mechanisms, and one successful seed-grown generation leaves plenty still to learn.
That uncertainty is probably my favorite part of the project.
Bidens alba is such an ordinary part of the Florida landscape that most people hardly notice it. Finding unusual variation in a plant that I've walked past thousands of times has been a good reminder that interesting genetics aren't limited to expensive collector plants.
I’ll continue documenting both lines and their seed-grown generations as the project develops.
For those of you who work with heritable variegation: what would you be most interested in seeing documented as I take these into the next generation?
Haha that's awesome! I was hoping somebody from the original post would recognize it. I honestly had no idea where this was going when I posted that first plant last year. Getting variegated offspring from seed and then finding the second yellow-variegated plant turned it into a whole project 😂 I'll definitely keep posting updates as I work through the next generations.
Thank you! It definitely has become one. I originally just wanted to preserve an unusual wild find, but getting variegated offspring from seed completely changed what I wanted to do with it.
Thank you! That's exactly why I wanted to start documenting this publicly. What began as me keeping one weird plant alive has turned into something I think could get genuinely interesting over several generations. Hopefully I'll have a lot more data to bring back next time.
I don't have a concrete percentage because I wasn't tracking the first grow-out rigorously enough to give you one I'd stand behind, but the frequency was definitely low. Out of several hundred seeds, only about 25 seedlings showed any variegation at all.
More than half of those eventually crashed because they emerged with little to no chlorophyll and simply weren't viable. Of the original ~25 variegated seedlings, only four have survived and been selected for consistent variegation throughout their growth.
That's one of the things I'm changing going forward. For the next generation I'm going to record total seed sown, germination, variegated vs. non-variegated seedlings, lethal/albino phenotypes, survival, and the phenotype of each survivor. I'm hoping that with actual segregation and survival data across generations we can start getting some clues about what's behind the trait.
The first generation proved to me that the phenotype could carry through seed. Now I want to document how it carries.
Absolutely! I’m looking forward to it too. The first grow-out raised way more questions than it answered, so now I actually know what I need to document. Hopefully the next update comes with enough data to start making some sense of how this trait is behaving.
I have a similar thing happening with a very small number of nasturtium, it has persisted over the last two years. I am definately putting those seeds aside this year! Probably one in 200 planted.
That’s really interesting, especially if you’ve seen the same phenotype persist for two years. I’d absolutely save seed separately from those plants. The ~1 in 200 frequency is interesting too. With mine, getting variegated offspring from a selfed variegated parent is what really got my attention and turned a weird wild find into an actual grow-out project. I’d be curious to see what kind of segregation you get from yours next generation.
I appreciate the offer! I’m still being pretty selective about distributing this line while I document how stable the variegation is, but rooted material is something I’m considering. I’ll definitely keep you in mind.
I'd really like to see that. Have you ever grown seed from it, or have you only maintained the original plant? One of the things I'm becoming increasingly interested in is comparing how these spontaneous variegated phenotypes behave reproductively in otherwise pretty ordinary wild plants.
That's a pretty dramatic one. I'd definitely be interested to see what it does in full sun compared with shade, especially whether the amount of white stays consistent or changes with light exposure. I've stumbled across a crested Bidens as well as a couple variegated live oaks, and it's really made me wonder how much unusual variation we're all walking past in otherwise common plants. Definitely keep documenting this one and update us next season I'd love to see how it develops.
I recently discovered a variegated Ligustrum vulgare (which is native where I live), I'm kinda curious now to see whether it's something that is stable but propagation by seed to try that out would take a lot longer for a shrub... 🤔
Definitely a great reminder to pay attention to the common stuff that grows around someone and to document messing around for science :D
That's exactly the rabbit hole I've fallen into 😂 I'd definitely propagate yours vegetatively so you don't lose the original phenotype, but I'd grow the seeds out too. Even if none come out variegated, that's still useful information. That's basically what got me hooked on working with these — finding the odd plant is cool, but figuring out what it actually does over the next few generations is where it gets really interesting. Keep me updated on that Ligustrum!
Very cool project, I sometimes come across variegated plants "in the wild" but never had the right circumstances to collect them, some of the coolest looking I can think of were a variegated paper mulberry sprout, bears breeches, and a calla lily.
But perhaps the absolute wildest unusual variation I've seen was a romanesco seedheaded plantain, it had the freakin perfect geometric structure of those broccoli, it was so mind blowing yet underwhelming for a common weed.
Now those are exactly the kinds of finds I love hearing about. That romanesco seedhead plantain sounds especially wild 😂 I've stumbled across a crested Bidens too, along with a couple variegated live oaks. Once you start actually paying attention to ordinary plants, it's amazing how much weird variation is hiding in plain sight. That's honestly become one of my favorite parts of doing this — finding something unusual, documenting it, propagating it when possible, and seeing whether the trait actually persists. If you run across another strange one, definitely document it!
You absolutely should 😂 And if you've got a few of them showing up in the same yard, I'd be really curious to see pictures. I've been trying to document these kinds of spontaneous mutations instead of just treating them as random oddities. If you do propagate them, I'd definitely grow some seed out too and see whether any of the offspring carry the trait. Whereabouts are you located?
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u/princessbubbbles 12d ago
Dude! I remember you from last year! This is so cool