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A lack of light can cause a plant’s variegation to fade as it tries to produce more chlorophyll-absorbing cells.

For plants in a room lacking the bright, indirect light many houseplants love (as well during winter), consider supplementing that light with grow lights.

If having an indoor grow house isn’t desirable or feasible, though, there are several ways to give your variegated houseplants the right amounts of light and humidity. Many indoor variegated plants come from tropical environments, so they’re often grown in greenhouses where temperature and humidity are maintained at an optimum level. Unstable mutations are generally less common because a lack of chlorophyll lowers a plant’s chance for survival in nature.

This is a technique some plants rely on to get enough chlorophyll to survive. Variegated plants with an unstable mutation will eventually revert back to solid-green plants.

This is often caused by insufficient light. Sometimes, especially among fast-growing houseplants, they may revert to a solid color. Why Plants Lose Their VariegationĪ variegated plant that has a stable, genetic mutation will continue to produce offshoots of plants that also display this genetic mutation. In some cases, variegation gives plants an advantage over other green varieties. This can be a result of years of adaptation to survive in the wild. Natural variegation: Some plants produce variegated leaf colors because of a pattern-gene present in the plant’s DNA. Like a genetic mutation, this is considered a stable variegation. Viral infection: Although a fairly rare form of variegation, it is possible for plants to have discolored leaves or veins as the result of a viral infection. Otherwise, new plants will not feature the variegation. Genetic mutations indicate that a plant’s color is stable and that its offshoots will also carry this genetic mutation, whether that is a solid color like red or purple, or a variegation.Ī chimeric mutation is unstable, which means that if a new plant is propagated from a variegated one, only cuttings from variegated shoots will carry the new trait. Genetic mutation: Cell mutation can occur as a genetic mutation or as a random mutation, known as a chimeric gene. There are three main causes for chlorophyll deficiency: genetic mutation, viral infection, and natural variegation. Chlorophyll contains the pigment that gives plants their green color. The wide variation in the color of plant leaves occurs due to a lack of chlorophyll in some of the plant’s cells.