I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers
 

I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers and they had very large rhizomes, which is fairly uncommon.

On 12/29/24 I found this water sucker



I went back a couple days ago and there were three more beautiful water suckers so I dug up all four and brought the mother plant back for propagation.

Re: I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers
 

What do think caused the bigger than normal rhizomes?

Re: I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers
 

I don't know but I can explain what I observed. They initially appeared that they would have been normal sword suckers but because of the overcrowding caused by some older and higher up sword suckers, these pups were forced to reduce their girth to fit through. The reduced girth in that section reduced it's connection to the mother plant causing it to become a water sucker. Why the rhizomes enlarged again is above my pay grade.

Re: I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers
 

Sounds like natural "vertical propagation" by the plants "raising" their growing point. Does not explain the increased girth though.

Re: I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers
 

These water suckers are perfect for vertical propagation. First, I need to get them rooted and then I'll remove most of the rhizome and start raising the soil level. The rhizome it currently has isn't good for propagation and it will be discarded. The new rhizome will eventually be loaded with plenty of leaf scars which is where the new offshoots will be produced.

Re: I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers
 

New offshoots are produced between the leaf scars.

The ten offshoots in the photo below were formed directly above a single leaf scar.



Tracking variegation

When an all green plant produces a random variegated leaf, or

when a variegated plant produces a highly variegated leaf,

that variegation can be tracked from the leaf through the leaf stem down the leaf sheath directly to the leaf scar to where the variegated tissue is on the rhizome.

Re: I harvested some nicely variegated water suckers
 

And she has already activated a small pup.

There are many reasons why I prefer working with small variegated pups.

First, a mother plant can produce many more small pups than large ones.

Second is root location which is often overlooked, is very important with the large variegated rhizomes but insignificant with the small ones.