Anyone remembers learning that leaves are green because the chlorophyll, used by plants to produce energy is itself green. However, sometimes the truth may be stranger than fiction, and this seems to be the case with the plant has developed blue leaves an adaptation mechanism to survive with very low levels of sunlight.
A recently published research paper from the journal Nature Plants describes the existence of a plant with blue leaves and the conditions that made it possible. The scientific name of this blue plant is Begonia pavonina, which translates as the peacock begonia. It can be found in the rain forests of southeast Asia, at the ground level where barely any light at all reaches.
As everyone knows, plants cannot survive without sunlight which is their source of energy. However, not much was known about how much actual sunlight plants need. Well, apparently they need as much as they can get, as they can always adapt to the conditions they are in.
Previous studies have suggested that the first organisms that relied on photosynthesis to produce the energy required to survive, were the color of plums. This was caused by the fact that they relied on photosynthetic chemicals that absorbed light in different wavelengths than the type the current plants use.
The unusual blue leaves are caused by photosynthetic structures known as iridoplasts. According to Heather Whitney, co-author of the paper and an expert in plant surface interactions at the University of Bristol, England, these structures have a similar function to chloroplasts. They collect light which is used to synthesize certain molecules that store energy inside them.
However, when the researchers examined the blue leaves of the Begonia pavonina, they found that the iridoplasts had a strange shape and they were layered on top of each other in membranes separated by a thin liquid. These type of structures are what makes the plant able to absorb the red and green wavelengths of light available in at the ground level in the rain forests. They do not absorb blue light and instead reflect it back giving the leaves their unique color.
This discovery has scientists fascinated with the versatility of plants, how they can adapt to survive even in unfavorable conditions.
Image courtesy: Matthew Jacobs
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