Burle Marx Variegata Reverting - Teak And Terracotta

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Hello and welcome to our guide to how to fix a reverting philodendron burle marx variegata. They can revert fairly easily, but the good news is that they can also be fixed fairly easily too, with most issues being due to how much light they receive. We go into more detail below.

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What Is Revertion in Variegated Houseplants?

Reversion is where a variegated houseplant loses it’s variegated coloration. Variegated philodendrons get their colors from a genetic mutation and are then bred until the mutation is fairly stable, then they are sold as a new variegated plant. When they revert they go bac t their original, non-mutated version.

Can A Reverted Plant Be Fixed?

Some reverted plants are on a one-way course and cannot be fixed unfortunately, but this is rare. The good news is that in most cases, and and as long as you catch it, the reversion can be fixed. This is because most cases of reversion are due to how much light the plant gets and you can just move them to a spot with different light levels. In general variegated philodendrons do not want to be in direct sun or in low light conditions, both can cause the plant to revert.

A reverted burle marx variegata — One of my reverted burle marx variegata

Further reading: our full care guide: Philodendron Burle Marx Care. Plus be sure to see all Philodendron Burle Marx propagation articles here: Burle Marx Water Propagation, Burle Marx Propagation In Leca, Burle Marx Propagation In Sphagnum Moss, Propagating Burle Marx From Nodes / Wet Stick, Burle Marx Propagation In Soil.

Why Do Philodendrons Revert?

The main reason a plant can revert is that they get too little light. This is great as it is easy to fix, just give the plant more light, you can also cut it back (we go into more details on that below).

However they can also revert from getting too much light. In bright light you can get all green leaves but also leaves that are all-variegated leaves. You can see in the picture below from one of my propagation buckets that the plants at the back are ok, but the ones at the front (which were close to a grow light) have turned all green and a couple have turned all light green.

So you need to be careful of too much light as well as too little. They should not be in a dark part of the room, and they should not be in direct sunlight. An east or west facing window is great for them, or back from the window and off to the side in a south facing window.

For more on burle marx care requirements see our guide Philodendron Burle Marx Care.

Burle Marx Variegata reverting from being too close to a grow light. — My Burle Marx Variegata mother plants that I propagate from. Some of them are reverting from being too close to a grow light.

What To Do If Your Burle Max Reverts?

Firstly if your plant has put out one or two variegated leaves don’t worry, they do this sometimes, but if you get 2 or 3 in a row then it could be starting to revert.

If you get three variegated leaves in a row you can the leaves off, back to the last variegated leaf. You want to cut the nodes off as they will very likely grow back reverted too, so you find the last variegated leaf, and trace it back to the node on the stem, then cut above that node. The goal here is to try to get the plant to grow a variegated leaf again from that variegated node.

You also will want to move the plant. If it was reverting due to too little light, then move it somewhere a bit brighter (but no direct sun), if it is too bight, then move it a bit further back from the window. Like we said before an east or west facing window is great at this stage for it to recover.