Question
we have a number of medium sized hoya plants in our living room.  about two years ago we took a slip off of one to start a plant for a friend.  when the plant grew back at the site where we cut the slip it grew back albino.  the stem is pink, and the leaves are white.  it is growing at a normal rate, and seems to be healthy, and the rest of the plant (green with white edges) remains unaffected.

my question is this.
have you ever seen this before, and what is causing it?

Answer
Hi Zach,

What you have is a Hoya 'sport.' A sport is a mutant form of a plant. For reasons not fully understood, plants occasionally put out a leaf or flower or stem that does not look like the rest of the plant. In nature, some sports may have an survival or apadtive advantage. These sports will eventually come to predominate and become the standard. That is how plant species evolve. Most sports do not have any adaptive advantage and pass into oblivion.

Sports are often prized by professional growers looking for something different. They can use tissue culture to "clone" the desired sport and reproduce it in large quantities. If you were a commercial grower you might reproduce your white Hoya sport and name it Hoya carnosa 'zach.'

Many sports that are reproduced often revert to their original characteristics after a while.

That is probably a lot more botany than you ever wanted to know!

Please let me know if any of this is unclear or if you have any additional questions.

Regards,
Will Creed, Interior Landscaper
Horticultural Help, NYC

You can E-mail me directly at: [email protected]

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