Random plant event: Indecisive Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckei'

Hey, here's something you don't see every day. This plant was sitting with a bunch of Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckei' plants at the greenhouse where I used to work, and something seemed a little off about it. When I checked it out more carefully, I saw that it was in the process of trying to become a Dracaena deremensis 'Lemon-Lime.'


I don't know how obvious this will be on your monitor, but if you look carefully, or open the picture in a separate window, you can see that the plant's lowest leaves look like 'Warneckei' (gray-green center, white margin), then there's a stretch where they look like 'Lemon-Lime' instead (gray-green center, chartreuse margin), then back to 'Warneckei,' then back to 'Lemon-Lime' again for the newest leaves. Plus there are a few leaves here and there which are both white and chartreuse, at different points along the margin.

I almost included this in the last Walkaways post, because it was very, very close: I actually brought it up to the counter and was going to buy it, and then at the last minute I was like no, wait, I don't want this, I have enough Dracaenas already, and this one isn't even pretty. So I put it back. But it was still strange enough to warrant its own post.

Incidentally, something very much like this must have happened long ago, when the variety 'Lemon-Lime' first appeared: I'm told it originated as a sport of 'Warneckei.'