it happens in the hosta seed world ...

we call them terminal whites ... though google doesnt support that term ...

as you note.. no chlorophyll to live ...

its like as soon as they use up the seed energy.. thats it ... [great english there.. lol]

a genetic mutant ....

ken

thanks for the info, disappointing as it is. I have decided to
keep it, fertilize it and watch it to see what happens. If I give it enough fertilizer couldn't the roots take it up and feed the plant? It is growing as fast as the green seedlings.

This happens fairly often, they are living off the food in the seed itself. Then it will wither.

If you get one with streaks of green you have a chance...

This is just one obvious (visible) result of inbreeding, so you can imagine what other traits (positive - rare, negative - common) the seedlings have that are not obvious at first. That's why line breeding is such a challenge. The Luminata's in particular are extremely inbred.

Chad

Thanks Chad for the info. So far my albino has no green streaks so it looks like it does not have a chance.

Marilyn

There has been a few cases of albino plants actually surviving by becoming a parasites! It's most famous in the cases of Albino Redwood Trees in California. These albino trees have found a way to survive by grafting their own roots to those of a normal pigmented tree and absorbing nutrients from its neighbor.

Maybe planting a few normal colored iris sprouts by your albino one will give it a chance if your up for it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Albino Redwoods

Mariah.B, I was already thinking of posting about the redwoods before I got down to your post. My grandfather had a little slip of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He built a little shack on/between a couple of redwood stumps where he could write without disturbance. I'm not sure if the albino redwood fronds were there before, or if the extra shade supported their creation, but I understood that he would take Stanford botony students up there in the 1920's. They were still growing well in the '50s when I first saw them, and began to show many signs of browning edges in the 90's long after the shack had fallen down. The plants had a waxy feel. As far as I know, they are still there.