Pink flowers from micro-propagated white Asters.

A method for micropropagating A. cordifolius cultivar White Elegans was studied. Although the regenerants retained the original chimerism for chromosome number, all 77 regenerants had pink flowers instead of the white ones produced by parent plants. The results indicate that the uniform color change and the persistence of cytological chimerism supports the hypothesis that the shoots formed from one or a few cells belonging to the L2/L3 layers expressing pink pigment instead of the L1 layer is responsible for the white epidermis.