There are many other colors of plants out there like the purple/red japanese maple, for one example. How do they photosynthesize?
2006-09-12 05:45:49 · 7 answers · asked by squirts 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Botany
They are not as efficient as chlorophyll (xanthophylls etc) but they do the job.
2006-09-12 05:55:19 · answer #1 · answered by ag_iitkgp 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They still photosynthesize, and still contain chlorophyll, but photosynthesis in those plants is not as efficient as it is in all green plants. It is merely reduced.
Some plants, like indian pipes, that do not contain chlorophyll get nutrients from a host plant. It is a parastic relationship between the two organisms.
2006-09-12 09:52:54 · answer #2 · answered by plantmd 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are chlorophylls that are not green. When leaves turn red and yellow in the autumn, we are seeing the other chlorophylls. The green one has died out and the other ones are no longer hidden. The green chlorophyll absorbs frequencies of light other than green best, while the red and yellow chlorophylls respectively absorb frequencies of light other than red and yellow best. Some plants have little or no green chlorophyll, but they still have the other types, else they could not survive.
For non-chlorophyllous plants, such as fungi, they can only live on the decaying remains of formerly living plants; that is to say, fungi came after chlorophyllous plants, just as phage viruses came after cells. Otherwise they would have had no prey.
2006-09-12 06:14:17 · answer #3 · answered by cdf-rom 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Non Green Plants
2016-10-16 07:32:27 · answer #4 · answered by tameezuddin 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You've got many answers, but most of them are wrong.
1. there are no yellow or red chlorophylls, they are always green and only differ in the shade of green (chl a is green, but chl b is bluish-green, turquoise).
2. there is no photosynthesis w/o chlorophylls, and no other pigment can substitute for chlorophyll. Carotenoids and xanthophylls have only accessory and protective functions: they help harvest the light energy and pass it to Chl, they help dissipate the excess light and they quench reactive oxygen species so they have antioxidant, protective function. However, only Chl can turn the light energy to chemical energy in the photochemical centers of photosystems.
3. All (normal, healthy) leaves contain chlorophyll. If a leaf has reddish or other color, it only means that it contains significant amounts of other pigments (carotenoids or anthocyanins, for example) that mask the color of chlorophyll.
2006-09-12 22:57:24 · answer #5 · answered by srpkinja33 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
CHLOROPHYLL is the most common among the plants pigment cells. There are 2 kinds of chlorophyll, a and b. They differ in the wavelength of light they absorb.
Non-green plants have other kinds of pigment cells namely:
Caratinoids
Xanthophylls
Anthocyanons
Phycocyamins
More or less, these pigments take part in the photosynthesis in other way round than chlorophyll.
2006-09-12 07:24:04 · answer #6 · answered by stroby 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
The yellow pigment is xanthophyll, that is also used for producing food but is not as efficient.
The red/purple colour in leaves is normally by Anthocyanin. they are just a mask over the chlorophyll or xanthophyll
2006-09-12 06:51:25 · answer #7 · answered by Rabindra 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋