20 40 60
Displaying 1 - 1 out of 1 Object(s)
Term Definition
Chimera An animal or a plant with genetically and morphologically different tissue on the same plant. The term is derived from Greek mythology and refers to a mythological animal composed of a lion, goat, and a serpent. Sometimes this term is also used to describe a plant derived from grafting, e.g., stems of Brazil nut trees grafted onto the root stock of another Brazil nut tree resulting in parts of the same tree with different genetic makeups. In Lecythidaceae, we use this term to describe the spontaneous occurence of anomalous flowers on a plant with normal flowers and assume that this difference is caused by a mutation. Normal and chimeric flowers of Corythophora rimosa subsp. rimosa. Photo by M. Hopkins.