Variegation Explained

Any plant lovers who have spent time on the internet recently will have come across swathes of variegated plants on their social media feeds. Whether it’s the incredibly popular variegated Monstera, the collectable cultivars of the Epipremnum aureum species, or even outdoor ornamental foliage plants, variegation is taking centre stage this year.

- By Madison Moulton

We may be able to recognise a variegated plant when we see it – but what actually causes this colour change in the first place?

The answer, as you may have guessed, is not a simple one. Firstly, there are different types of variegation with different causes. Some are naturally occurring within the plant cells, and others are caused by external factors, such as disease. In many instances the disease could be a virus which doesn’t affect the plant in any way other than the variegation.

Many ornamental plants with colour differences have a uniform variegation repeated on each leaf that looks very similar. This variegation is encoded into the genes of the plant and becomes a characteristic of that species.