Photos show rare 'albino' bluebonnets in Texas Hill Country
According to Kelsey Perry, the white bluebonnets are in her dad's cattle pasture, on the east side of 130 and Von Quintus Road in Elroy, Texas.
ELROY, Texas - A FOX 7 Austin viewer has shared some beautiful photos of rare 'albino' bluebonnets.
The bluebonnets were spotted in Elroy, Texas. According to Kelsey Perry, the white bluebonnets are in her dad's cattle pasture, on the east side of 130 and Von Quintus Road. The photos were taken around noon on Friday, April 15.
According to wildflower.org, the white bluebonnet is the result of a mutation in one of the genes responsible for producing the blue pigment of the flower. There are color variations other than white that show up occasionally (like pink) but neither the white flower nor any of the other variants are true breeding plants.
In other words, if they are sitting in a field with mostly normal bluebonnets, the pollen that the white ones receive will most likely be from the normal bluebonnets.
This pollen will reportedly mask the mutation in the next generation so that they will have blue flowers instead of white.
According to Kelsey Perry, the white bluebonnets are in her dad's cattle pasture, on the east side of 130 and Von Quintus Road in Elroy, Texas.
Some white ones will still surface every so often since blue flowers can carry (but masks) the mutant gene that causes white flowers.
To produce white flowers, an egg with the white mutant gene must be fertilized by pollen which also has the mutant gene. If you want a population of all white bluebonnets, the white parent flowers have to be fertilized only by pollen that carries the mutation, according to wildflower.org.
Dr. Jerry Parsons of Texas A&M was able to produce a red bluebonnet and a Texas Aggie maroon bluebonnet by carefully selecting and breeding color variants. You can click here to learn more.
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