I have seen the pink and white before if it survives it may be a variegated, Sometimes it starts variegated and new leaves will become green.

Don't know about the other It may just be a strange gene and may catch up later. ????

Oh, Marica, I WISH I got a variegated plant from seed! I don't believe it's an albino. Perhaps it's too soon to tell .. it's only 5 days old, LOL. I'll post an update when the true leaves come in.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you LatinLady!

I hope you get variegated!!

I was wondering how long you wait before acclimating your seedlings to full sun..

Maria Elena. Don't put the semi albino into full sun, it will die i think.

I have had the best germination rate ever under full sun. I germinate under full sun. The pink & yellow seedling is no exception.

Yes me too but all my albino's have died in full sun or in shade

Thanks for your comments.

Exactly, Stuart ... Albino seedlings die within a month because they cannot complete the process of photosythesis. It wouldn't make a difference one way or another where it was kept. I'm hoping it's not just an albino ... Wishful thinking!?!?

What do you think of that skinny leafed one? Have you seen that before? Oh, by the way, I was wrong ... The yellowed seedling next to it IS from the same pod and is also a 'Double Irresistible' hybrid. So is the tiny leafed one above. I'm always amazed by the genetic differences in same pod seeds.

I will update if anything significant happens.

UPDATE:

The albino seedling dropped its no-chlotophyll-producing cotyledon leaves and died. Very disappointed! I wanted so much for it to be variegated. The tiny leafed seedling still has lots of tiny leaves and very compact growth.

Regarding the thin leafed one, I planted 10 "Double Irresistible" seeds and germinated seven (7), pictured below. All grew the normal sized cotyledon first leaves but this one (center) has now grown four full sets of very narrow, crispum-like leaves (without rippled wavy edges). The others have either dark or light green leaves.

I'm aware seeds are not true to the parents and that genetics plays a crucial role in the characteristics of each individual seedling. Can anyone provide any further insight on this particular seedling? These are one month old.

Below is "Double Irresistible"

Below is "Double Cherry Blossom," one of the parents (cross) of "Double Irresistible"

- Maria Elena

Update: Age 1.5 months

I just noticed a semi rippled edge on the leaves of the Double Cherry Blossom cross pictured above.

Maria Elena,

I can't speak about your seedlings since they are, well, seedlings. Even if I am inclined to guess--and I am not, as I'll explain in a bit--I wouldn't hazard a guess until my plants are at least two years old and have stabilized, undisturbed, in the same pot for at least one full season. The reason for this is because adeniums respond very visibly to a variety of factors---sun, fertilizer, heat, etc. I have plants that have sprouted all manners of weird leaves one season and then normalize the following season. So, you really can't say until you've watched your plant go through all the cycles for a while.

Case in point---nice cute, fat seedlings do not always turn into nice, fat plants. Conversely, skinny seedlings don't always stay skinny.

Secondly, the reason I won't even speculate even if we are talking about a mature plant is this: most, if not all, seeds have questionable family histories. We can probably count in one hand the number of people who have reliable records of crosses they have made from habitat-collected stocks whose provenances are not questionable (i.e. he went there--Somalia, Socotra, Natal or wherever--found the plant in habitat and collected seeds from pods growing out of it, put it in a baggie with a label that includes the binomial name, coordinates and batch number etc, the way field collection is supposed to work).

For example, this plant:

I can make a case for it being some kind of crispum descendant. But I know it's not. I have seen the same cultivar from the same seller whose leaves are not like this. Only mine grew this way and I never figured out why before it keeled over and died.

And that's the way it is.
I hope this made sense, I'm very hungry at the moment.

Pagan

Hi Latinlady, I have 2 odd obesum seedlings too. One is a siamese conjoined twins and the other is similar to yours. They are 4 months old. I have isolated the patchy green, narrow leaf seedling away from the rest, in case its sick with some kind of virus. Tan

Those are awesome, Tan! Interesting notion to suspect a virus (mosaic?) on the narrow-leaved seedling. Since adeniums with narrow leaves do exist, I don't think it's a virus at all, but simply a characteristic of its genetic makeup. We'll see.

Pagan, while I do agree that the characteristics of a seedling are somewhat subject to change as the tree matures, I disagree with your opinion of randomness. Yes, we are mostly working with hybrids and yes, growing conditions will always have some bearing on the general health of any tree. However, genetics is the principal factor in determining specific characteristics, such as flower color, single / double / triple blooms, leaf shape, caudex size, self branching, etc. For instance, on a healthy tree the color intensity may change from bloom to bloom due to age & externals (sun exposure, climate, fertilizers) but the petals on those blooms will not change shape.

The seeds for these seven seedlings came from AdeniumCenter. They are all on the same tray and under the exact same growing conditions. While each is somewhat different, this one is completely different. Double Irresistible is the mother and Double Cherry Blossom is one of its grandparents. Judging by the leaves, Double Cherry Blossom appears to be a crispum? cross. I believe this seedling is showing this trait and has a very high likelihood of keeping these slender, strappy leaves.

Can we control the genetics of hybrid cultivars? Not exactly, as this lot well establishes ... It's a crapshoot. However, we know that cultivar C can only contain the genetics, in any random order, of cultivars A & B, its parents. Otherwise, why would anyone even bother with cultivation? Why would we even bother to purchase seed based on the mother bloom?

Time will tell. I'll be sure to follow up periodically, say at 6 month & 1 year, providing it lives. Tan, please feel free to post updates on your 'oddities' here, as well. I think it will be interesting to see how these seedlings progress.

- Maria Elena

And of course we can control the genetics of cultivars--that is what
hybridization is all about--artificial selection of desired traits.
Hybridization is not a crap shoot. There are percentages of probabilities
that breeders--those who know what they are doing, at least---keep
track of. What we can not control is how these traits are expressed (and
if they are, how strongly they are expressed) in succeeding generations
and whether these traits are stable (or can be stabilized) in that
specific line (i.e. trait shows up generation after generation). And so we keep crossing, back-crossing and so forth, until a specific trait becomes stable. Think:
Mendel's peas. Or better yet, think Mark Dimmit.

There's an even better way---just map the genome of
Adenium obesum and find out which protein switches what trait and go
from there.

In any case, I was not talking about randomness--that would have the hidden assumption that I know what the variables are. And that was exactly my point---I don't know what the variables are. I don't know the parent plants and even if I'm told what they are, I have to take the grower's word for it. Adenium breeders can not even agree on the names of identical cultivars; I can not expect them to have the ability to establish the parentage of their stocks. So what I actually meant to say is this: you really can not pin down what you have and what the ancestral plants are based on a few leaves of so young a plant.
Pagan

Is it possible that Adeniumcenter accidentally dropped a crispum seed in with a batch of adenium seeds? Human error?

Tyler

Thanks, everyone for your feedback. I, too, am totally disinterested in debate. After all, I am not a botanist or horticulturist. Anything is possible or probable when it comes to a seed, right? Even human error. I did speak with AdeniumCenter ... They shared the cross information with me and asked me to share a photo of the bloom when it appears. I will certainly share their thoughts here.

Rick, you nailed it. That's exactly why I posted this thread ... A sincere desire to share and understand the "whys, ifs, and hows." After all, sharing as we go is what makes this forum work so well & a goldmine of information.

Maria Elena

Can't wait to see the blooms from that batch Maria. Should be very interesting.

Tyler

Thanks, Tyler - I've gifted away quite a few seedlings but I'm holding on to these until the 2nd blooms emerge (Rick's recommendation / stabilization). Keeping my fingers crossed for something with hushed tones, more like Double Cherry Blossom. That's a gorgeous bloom!

Will definitely share photos of whatever I get. Marica posted an interesting thread a couple of months ago on which she asked forum members to post a picture of the purchased bloom vs. what they actually got from that seed. I hope we all keep that thread going ... It's brilliant!

All the best to you!

Maria Elena

Hi Maria, my odd seedling has grown and lost its special narrow patchy green leaf habit. Was hoping that the color remain "variegated". The new leaves now are all of normal shape and full green. I did spray cytokinin twice on this runt... no idea if its due to this. How is yours doing? Tan

Tan,

Wow, your seedling really had a growth spurt these last two months!!

Mine is now 4 months old, like yours when you posted. In comparison to its sibling, it has remained a runt.

Some of the leaves have thickened a little but remain lanceolate, but so were yours two months ago. Perhaps in two months it, too, will have "normal" leaves ... We'll see.

The two on its immediate left & right are its sibling. I have 4 others just as large. Notice how the one on the far right has more slender, pointed leaves than the average obesum. This is definitely a DNA trait in that batch.

One of the cross pollinators for this seed was this flower ... Note the ripple edged, lanceolate leaves:

♡

Here's one of two variegated seedlings I've gotten out of about 150 total seeds planted. It's only 3 months old. I'm hoping it maintains its variegation.

All the best to you!

- Maria Elena

Hi Maria, nice healthy seedlings there. The seedlings leaves do look like the mother plant. Wow 150 seedlings! And congrats for getting 2 lucky potential variegated seedlings :)