El Nino Gets Stronger

Soon, a uniquely marbled pink poinsettia could be available to consumers who like decorating for the holidays with a flare for the unusual.

The variety, unnamed for now, is a natural mutation of a poinsettia variety called "Premium Picasso." The topmost leaves, red on the traditional poinsettia, have an unusual almost watercolor wash of pink, red and white on this new variety.

Among plant breeders, the mutated variety is called a "sport" of the Picasso variety.

You could spend years trying to cross-pollinate poinsettias and never get a variety like this one, said Daniel Warnock a scientist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The task that lies ahead for Warnock is to reproduce a stable variety in the greenhouse.

The current plant is still unstable genetically--which results in some of the top leaves perfectly mottled while the others are solid or only half-way there.

Of about 50 plants, Warnock will select the two or three that have the desired percentage of splotches and use cuttings from those as parents for the next generation. This process will continue until the entire plant consistently and uniformly displays the blotchy look that the distributors were so captivated with.

---LiveScience Staff

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Credit: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign