Black plants

[Peter Jordan]

ajt at rri.sari.ac.uk (Tony Travis) writes:

>I agree, Marco, and that was my point:  black leaves would absorb all
>the incident light - evolution has produced photosystem I/II and
>auxilliary pigments to utilise more of the available wavelengths.  The
>ultimate effect of utilising _all_ the incident light would be that the
>leaves would then appear to be black.  Just an interesting thought ...

>One last thought - black leaves would compromise the plant's
>phototropic and photoperiodic responses, so perhaps they're not such a
>good idea after all!!

>Maybe an ideal plant should be black with white stripes:  drat! that
>opens the door to a 'zebra' plant thread >:-)


I don't know about zebra plants (4 oclocks ?)
	but ..
	wouldn't black leaves make for a very high rate of transpiration.

If water is a limiting factor, maybe having only the most efficient pigments
(reds and blues) helps avoid needing too much water ?

Peter Jordan