So, I was hanging out and lurking on Facebook where I saw a discussion by some aroid peeps about Birkin. I did not join in, because, I do not HAVE a Birkin. But I did glean some relevant information for those of you who do have one. AND for those of you who may be contemplating whether you want to drop any large coin on one.
Birkin is a sport (a spontaneous chimeric mutation) of the most unlikely plant....Rojo Congo. It was separated off the mother plant and propagated and seemed to be relatively stable. So now, ALL of the Birkins on the market are being produced in CHINA by tissue culture. Which is why those cheap liner plants have been showing up in places like ETSY.
There have been some very interesting reversions happen with this plant. Some start making all green leaves. Some start making all white leaves. Some will throw a bona fide ROJO CONGO red or green totally different shaped leaf every now and then. Some have produced leaves that are variegated like the splashed portion of a variegated Monstera, instead of the linear variegation. There have been leaves that have cream/green/white coloration like a Philodendron Ring of Fire. They had several interesting photos of some of these variations.
It seems pretty clear that this plant is unstable. It may last in the form you bought it in, or it may turn into something else altogether. Reversion is a real possibility. It was pointed out that there are no photos of specimens of larger older Birkins that are still variegated being shown anywhere. Some people were questioning whether it was a similar case like the Pink Congo (the philodendron that was found to have been treated with some chemical that made the leaves pink, then when it wore off the plant turned green...they were extravagantly expensive before this scam was exposed).
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Why don;t those of you who have them post baseline photos here, and then photos over time, so everyone can follow along and see what happens with yours?
