Re: Luminata Genetics - Violet Music

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Thanks Neil, we're almost getting where I was trying to head.  Thanks for the references Chuck.

 

Still, maybe I'm not expressing myself clearly.  Everyone keeps throwing the definition of luminata back into the discussion, but I'm not asking if these things are luminatas or not, I know what a luminata is supposed to look like, but I would ask this.  Is a plant that has the genetic requirements of a luminata always going to express in such a way that it fits the color scheme classification?  Maybe the definition is too restrictive.  But let's not go there right now, were doing semantics again there.  I would like to talk about the ones that don't fit the definition fully, or at least get some discussion going about them.  It is the oddities or "not quite" luminatas that I'm trying to point out.  The thing I'm trying to get at is how THESE relate to the luminata genetics.  Semantics aside, lets just say that a luminata is only a luminata if it meets the strict requirements listed, and say the others are not true luminatas.  Then lets move on from there and say they ARE potentially related to luminatas and forget about the definition of what is and isn't a luminata. 

 

I guess I'm saying, "hay, look at these; they're cool too, and everyone is ignoring them when they discuss luminatas!".  I don't want to just acknowledge that there are other possibilities, I want to add them to the discussion.  These are things that show distinct similarities to luminatas, but rarely are noticed or discussed in this light.  For instance, why that odd coloring in 'Burst', 'Fast Track', and 'Scene Stealer'?  Why do some like 'Charged Up' and 'Splash of Raspberry' appear to have a luminata (-like) _expression_ of light veining in what would otherwise be an amoena, variegata, neglecta, bitone, self, etc.? 

 

To the dotted ones briefly.  If you look close at 'Lightspeed', 'Jitterbug', 'Splashcata', 'Tobasco' and any number of others, you see that the dots are between the veins, not along them.  This is not characteristic of a plicata.  On the opposite extreme are the "striped" ones, in which the color follows the veins across the entire tepal.  There isn't a hint of similarity to luminata in these "striped" ones.  There are "striped" ones in which the stripes are broken into dots too, but the effect is somewhat different.  In 'Lightspeed' and 'Tobasco' the bands of color are starting to coalesce and resemble the "fancy plicata" or "plicata-luminata", or the typical dark part of the pattern of a true luminata (ignoring the plicata stripes at the base of course).  Then what do we call ones like 'Cupid's Dart', 'Gingerbread Girl', or 'Shakedown'.  Are these "zonal luminata-plicatas", or maybe just a "zonal plicatas"?  Or, perhaps as you suggest is possible Neil, they are something different.  I guess I would submit that a lot of things are lumped under plicata that aren't straight or pure plicata, and that some might be as much luminata (genetically) as they are plicata.  Rarely is any distinction or comment made of these from the bulk of plicatas. 

 

Things like 'Burst', 'Boogie Woogie', and 'Scene Stealer' are unique and often spectacular patterns, but what are they?

 

Then back to the zonals for a second.  There are some without dark markings at the base like a true luminata, and there are those (most) that have them?  Should these perhaps go into two separate groups, since it is likely that there are plicata genes causing _expression_ of basal anthocyanin stripes in some, and perhaps glaciata/luminata genes with a lack of true plicata genes in the ones without them (I emphasize "perhaps", since I'm just guessing here).  The ones with the dark-vein stripes are often just barely distinct enough to not be called plicatas, and the ones without them are really not very different from luminatas.

 

Dave