Something strange with my Ventricosa

[largosmom]

I have a large green hosta in my front yard that I assume is Ventricosa due to the size, vein count, and flowers. Last year, it had a white streak on one leaf and I was excited to see if it was sporting. This year, in several places on the plants, there are what look like reversed tissues, where the top tissue is on the bottom of the leaf, and vice versa. It has extra veins in between the normal ones, and some of the leaves are very "wavy", or have managed to get a slice out of themselves while growing, and another leaf has almost embedded itself in the side. There really haven't been any major storms, and this hosta was not coming up during our cold snap, so I don't think it is environmental. I think something is happening genetically or due to a disease, and am interested if anyone has seen anything like it before. It's planted by itself, so it doesn't share root space with any other hostas. I'm debating if I should dig it up and pot it up as I have my other hostas, leave it alone and see what happens, or what.

[largosmom]

some of the leaves are not as pretty:

[largosmom]

Here is my single streaked leaf from last year. It is an odd streak, though.

[HostaDesigner]

Good morning! First of all, I don't think it's Ventricosa. It looks more like 'Hyacinthina' or similar. I have seen funky leaves like that before and the hosta completely recovered from it the following year. But, I'm not an expert. Is it in a really dry place? Maybe stressed by tree roots?

[Mary Ann]

Post this on Hosta Virus forum for Chris to look at.

[ademink]

I'm afraid that was my first thought also! Those first few photos look suspicious.

[largosmom]

I put a note over there to get Chris' attention. I went out tonight and checked my second of these green hostas and it also has a streak on one leaf, but I didn't yet observe any of the extra veins or strange tissue on it. I'll check again in the morning when the light is better. I also found a suspicious looking smaller blue-green. I had one infected hosta in 2005 that I dug up and got rid of last year. I had no other signs of problems until this year. It is possible that I cut spent scapes or something, but I have to look to see when I moved this hosta to its current location...believe it was last year after the infected August Moon was disposed of.

Here are pics of this hosta last year.

[renaldo75]

Well from the flowers, it's definitely NOT H. ventricosa which has dark purple flowers that are held differently on the scape. I think HostaDesigner had it right when he said this is probly Hyacinthina.

[planwerk]

Yes it is definitly Hyacinthina. I have about 200 of them and I find two or three streakers every year. Some of them nice, some -well- strange.
Take it out of the ground in Juli, separate the streaking shoot and just wait. It might just vanish next year (hopefully not ). If not you 'll have a new Hosta for yourself!

greetings planwerk

ps: the odd marking doesn't look like hvx to me

[largosmom]

I'm quite happy to have an ID! Hyacinthina is a common one to get here, or was when I purchased them, I know the names of what was available or caught my eye, but I'm not always sure which I purchased!

Thanks, I'll probably move it into a container along with many of my other hostas in the next few weeks. I'll separate the eyes then. It looks to me like the one leaf has reversed the upper and lower tissues as the darker green shows on the underside of the leaf and the lighter side with a bit of waxy coating seems to show up on top. Most of the leaves look quite nice with the extra veins, I'll post a couple more wider range photos later. I'm interested to see what turns streaky in addition to the extra veins.

This is a fertile hosta, correct? If it seems not to damage the hosta, and looks OK, may try to self-pollinate it to see what happens. I'm just starting with hybridization and am interested in what works and what does not.

Laura

[Tigger]

Fortunei types are barely fertile, with poor pod set. Not impossible, but difficult. Good thing they sport so much!

[largosmom]

How about as a pollen parent? Appreciate the information. I can't wait to see what this does.

Laura

[DryGulch]

I don't think this is a genetically desireable trait...why would you want to use this for breeding, not attractive, I'm thinking.

[largosmom]

Drygulch, I understand where you are coming from. I would not want to breed undesirable characteristics into hostas, but I'm willing to attempt to breed it to learn from it.

As I'm still learning about hosta genetics, it is interesting to me to learn what causes what. So far, the changes in this hosta seem to cause weak leaf edges (undesireable), flipping of the tissue layers (could be positive or negative...looks negative so far), and extra veins (not unlovely), and possibly streaking (depends on the eye of the beholder). If I can learn something about whether or not this trait or traits are genetic, or environmental, that seems a positive result even if I have to cull the seedlings for undesireable results.

I think I read in one of my hosta books that some sports are caused by the movement of the tissue from one layer to another, or the color from one layer to another.

On the other hand, Chris and some others have said that this may be a transient state for this particular cultivar and it may not look like that next year. I'm interested in learning what this very neat plant has to teach me.

Laura

[NWhosta4life]

Well if you do decide to use it as pod parent at least, good luck b/c hyacinthia is really greedy with seeds , fact i think it might be fairly close to sterile.

[NWhosta4life]

sorry tigger i missed your post.........uhh what tigger said