Sport (botany)

Sports may differ by foliage shape or color, flowers, fruit, or branch structure.

[4] If the clonal descendants of a modified cell eventually form a meristem that gives rise to new plant parts, those may be of a new phenotype.

Often only part of the meristem cells are affected, resulting in genetic chimerism in such sports.

[5] Such selections are often prone to "reversion", meaning that part or all of the plant reverts to its original form.

[6] Other common fruits resulting from a sport mutation are the red Anjou pear, the Ruby Red grapefruit, and the variegated pink lemon, which is a sport of the "Eureka" lemon.

Foliage of a dwarf Alberta spruce ( Picea glauca var. albertiana 'Conica'), with a branch showing reversion [ 1 ] to the normal Alberta white spruce growth habit of larger leaves and longer internodes.