When the Same Plant Reveals a Different Expression
Sometimes a plant gives us an observation we were never looking for.
This is Alocasia pseudosanderiana “Silver Echo,” an individual plant that began as a cormlet from one of our mother plants here in our Grove. That mother plant had previously shown pink in her foliage.
As the cormlet developed into its own individual plant, however, something quite different appeared. Silver.
Her foliage developed a predominantly silver expression, with green remaining visible through portions of the blade. That was the expression in front of us at the time, and we gave her the expression name “Silver Echo.”
In July 2026, “Silver Echo” left our Grove and travelled from Ontario to her new home in Newfoundland. And with that move, almost everything around her changed.
The plant travelled. Her environment did not.
Her genetics and existing leaves travelled with her. But the light, temperature, humidity, airflow, water, nutrition and root-zone environment in which those silver leaves had developed stayed behind.
After arriving in Newfoundland, “Silver Echo” acclimated to her new surroundings and continued growing. Her growing media was also changed from the Akadama + Fluval Stratum mix we use in our Grove to a different medium.
Then, in early September, her new grower sent me a photograph.
“Silver Echo” had produced a new leaf. And this one was strongly pink.
Photo shared by “Silver Echo's” grower, used with permission.
So What Actually Changed?
The easiest answer would be to point to one difference and say, “That did it.”
But we can't.
“Silver Echo” moved into an entirely different growing environment. Light intensity, photoperiod and spectrum may have changed. So may have temperature, humidity, airflow, watering practices, water chemistry, nutrition and root-zone conditions. Her growing media changed. And the plant herself was continuing to mature and develop.
Too many things changed at once for us to isolate one of them as the reason for the pink leaf.
What we can document is much simpler: “Silver Echo” developed predominantly silver foliage while growing in our Grove. Later, under a different environmental context in Newfoundland, the same individual plant produced a strongly pink new leaf.
Those are the observations.
They don't tell us why.
Genetics Matters Too
There is another part of this story we shouldn't overlook.
“Silver Echo” originated as a cormlet from a mother plant that had previously shown pink expression herself.
That gives us part of the plant's biological history. It doesn't give us an explanation.
People sometimes ask us, “Can I see the mother plant?”
Absolutely. Seeing the mother can be useful. It shows where a propagation came from and gives us a record of what the mother herself has expressed.
But the mother plant is not a photograph of the propagation's future.
Seeing the mother does not mean the plants propagated from her will look like her.
A cormlet-derived plant is a vegetative propagation rather than a sexually produced offspring. Although it shares its biological origin with the mother plant, what we eventually observe still needs to be documented on that individual plant.
The mother's appearance gives us history.
It does not give us a promise.
The Science Behind the Question
Plant science gives us a useful framework for thinking about observations like these.
One part of that framework is phenotypic plasticity - the ability of a genotype to produce different observable characteristics under different environmental conditions.
Genetics, development and environment can all be relevant to the phenotype we eventually observe. But knowing that does not allow us to work backwards from one leaf and determine which factor produced a particular patch of colour.
Pigments give us another piece of context.
Anthocyanins are one group of plant pigments associated with red, pink, purple and related coloration in many plant tissues. Their biosynthesis and accumulation are biologically regulated and can respond to environmental signals, including light and temperature.
That science gives us useful context, but it does not identify the pigment responsible for the coloration we are seeing in these particular leaves, nor does it tell us why “Silver Echo” or “Lavender Fault” expressed pink.
We did not perform pigment analysis, genetic testing or a controlled experiment.
We observed the plants. We photographed what they expressed. And that is the limit of what we can claim.
Meanwhile, Back in Our Grove
And this is where another Alocasia pseudosanderiana becomes particularly interesting.
Her expression name is “Lavender Fault.”
“Lavender Fault” and “Silver Echo” both originated as cormlets from the same mother plant - the same mother that had previously shown pink expression.
Yet the two propagations did not simply grow up looking like their mother or like each other.
At the time of this writing, “Lavender Fault” remains in our Grove and is currently available.
Recently, we made one intentional change to where she was growing. We moved her from an area of stronger light intensity to an area with lower light intensity.
This was not a move into low light. Her established six-hour photoperiod remained unchanged, and we made no intentional change to the rest of her cultivation routine.
Her newest leaf subsequently opened showing a noticeably darker pink expression.
Alocasia pseudosanderiana “Lavender Fault,” photographed in our Grove.
Does that mean the lower light intensity caused the darker pink?
We cannot say that.
The sequence makes the observation interesting, but sequence alone doesn't establish cause and effect. “Lavender Fault” was still growing and developing, and although light intensity was the intentional change we made, this was not a controlled scientific experiment.
She therefore does not confirm what happened with “Silver Echo.”
She gives us a second, separate observation.
Same mother plant. Two cormlet propagations. Different developmental histories. Different circumstances. And both have now shown pink expression.
Their shared history is worth documenting.
But we don't know what role, if any, their shared biological origin played in the pink expression we later observed.
We have not identified the genetic, cellular or developmental mechanism responsible for the pigmentation. The mother's previous pink expression therefore cannot be used to predict or explain what appeared later on either propagation.
What we have is an observation: the mother had previously shown pink, and two separate cormlet propagations from her later showed pink at different points in their own development and under different circumstances.
Interesting? Absolutely. Evidence of a specific mechanism? No.
What Our Expression Names Really Mean
This is also why the expression names we use at Variegated Greens matter.
Every plant we offer is given an expression name. The name is chosen to best describe what we are seeing on that individual plant's leaf or leaves at that particular moment.
That is how “Silver Echo” received her name. At the time, her foliage was expressing predominantly silver.
The same applies to “Lavender Fault.” Her name describes what we observed on her individual foliage when she was named.
Our expression names are deliberately placed in quotation marks. They are observational names - a way of distinguishing an expression name we have given an individual plant from its botanical or horticultural identification.
An expression name is not a botanical name. It is not necessarily a cultivar name. And it is not a promise that future leaves will continue to look exactly as they did when the name was given.
Plants continue to grow. Their expression can change.
“Silver Echo's” later pink leaf doesn't make the name “Silver Echo” wrong. Nor does the darker pink now appearing on “Lavender Fault” invalidate what we observed before.
The names record a moment in each plant's story.
They don't predict the next leaf.
When a Plant Leaves Our Grove
Whenever one of our plants leaves our Grove, we can tell its new grower how it was cultivated here.
We can document the light-dark rhythm it experienced, the growing media it was rooted in, the nutrition it received and the conditions under which we observed its foliage develop.
But there is one thing we cannot put inside the box.
The environment.
A new home introduces a different combination of conditions. That doesn't mean the new environment is better or worse than ours.
It means it is different.
The plant takes its existing biology and developmental history with it. From that point forward, however, it continues growing within a new environmental context.
And what appears on its future leaves remains to be seen.
What These Plants Are Teaching Me
For me, the most interesting part of “Silver Echo's” story isn't simply that she “turned pink.”
She didn't.
The silver leaves didn't become pink. The same individual plant later produced a new leaf with a very different expression.
Now “Lavender Fault,” originating from the same mother plant, gives us another observation to keep watching.
Was it perhaps the change in environment that influenced what we saw in “Silver Echo”?
We don't know.
Did the change in light intensity influence what we're now seeing in “Lavender Fault”?
We don't know that either.
And what about their shared biological origin from a mother plant that had previously shown pink herself?
That matters to their history. But it still doesn't give us the mechanism.
Perhaps genetics contributed to what was biologically possible. Perhaps development mattered. Perhaps environment influenced what was eventually expressed. Perhaps several things interacted.
We simply don't know.
And sometimes that's where observing plants becomes most interesting.
We can provide conditions. We can make changes and watch what follows. We can photograph the leaves and document their history.
But plants are living organisms, not machines programmed to produce a particular colour on command.
Sometimes, given the circumstances around them and the biology they carry within them, plants will simply do what plants do.
They grow. They change. And sometimes they show us something we weren't expecting.
The mother gives us history, not a promise.
The environment gives us context, not a guarantee.
The plant gives us the expression we actually observe.
Have you ever moved a plant into a different growing environment - or changed part of its growing conditions - and noticed something different appearing in its new growth?
Perhaps the most useful thing we can do when that happens is observe first and resist the urge to immediately turn what we see into an explanation.
Two plants from the same mother. Two different histories. Both eventually showing pink.
Interesting?
Absolutely.
Proof of why?
No.
For now, we document what happened, keep observing, and leave the questions open.
References & Further Reading
Schneider, H. M. (2022). “Characterization, costs, cues and future perspectives of phenotypic plasticity.” Annals of Botany, 130(2), 131-148. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcac087.
Shi, L., Li, X., & Fu, Y. (2023). “Environmental Stimuli and Phytohormones in Anthocyanin Biosynthesis: A Comprehensive Review.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(22), 16415. DOI: 10.3390/ijms242216415.
Ye, S., Zhang, H., Guan, R., & Lin, R. (2026). “Light Regulation of Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Plants: From Mechanisms to Applications.” Plant, Cell & Environment, 49(9), 7071-7084. DOI: 10.1111/pce.70682.
A Note From Variegated Greens
We are not plant scientists. We are growers and observers.
Our Exploration Scrolls bring together observations made in our Grove, established plant science from published research, and questions or interpretations that arise from what we see. We try to keep those things clearly separated.
Neither “Silver Echo” nor “Lavender Fault” represents a controlled experiment. Their photographs are visual records of what we observed at particular points in their development and under particular growing circumstances.
We did not perform pigment analysis, genetic testing or controlled experiments. The observations therefore do not establish what caused the pink expression.
This Exploration Scroll is intended as an observational guide and an invitation to look more closely, ask questions, and continue observing.
Mother Nature provides the masterpieces. Variegated Greens simply showcases them.
— Mandy Vasquez
Owner, Variegated Greens