Biological Strategy
Pigment Enhances Light Absorption
AskNature Team
Image: Marie Coleman / Flickr /
Capture, Absorb, or FilterEnergy
Energy is naturally available in many forms, including kinetic, potential, thermal, elastic, radiant, chemical, and more. All living systems require energy to carry out their many activities, and have developed strategies appropriate to one or more of those forms. For example, some plants maximize their surface area available for capturing radiant energy from the sun while others have strategies to focus scattered light onto photosynthesizing areas.
Flowering Plants
Clade Angiosperms (“receptacle seed”): Dandelions, oaks, grasses, cacti, apples
With 416 families containing some 300,000 known species, angiosperms are the most diverse group of plants, and they can be found around the globe in a wide variety of habitats. They are characterized by seeds that grow enclosed in ovaries, which are enclosed in flowers. The floral organs then develop into fruits of myriad kinds and dimensions, from simple seed casings on maples to elaborate fleshy growths like papayas. The oldest flower known from fossils, Montsechia vidalii, appeared during the Jurassic Period 130 million years ago. They are the primary food source for herbivorous animals, which in turn makes them the indirect food source for carnivores as well.
Leaves of tropical plants such as Leptospermum recapture light with purplepigment.
Image: Ben Britten /
Image: Marie Coleman / Flickr /
Purple pigments on the underside of leaves in rainforest plants help maximize light absorption through reflecting light back up int theleaf.
“On the floor of a well-established forest, the light may be very dim indeed.” Some plants in Borneo’s tropical rain forests “maximise the meagre light that falls on them in a different way. They coat the underside of their leaves with a purple . This catches the light after it has passed through the thickness of the leaf and redirects it back into the leaf tissues so that the has a second chance to utilise what is left of it.” (Attenborough 1995:47-48)
Last Updated October 13, 2016
References
“On the floor of a well-established forest, the light may be very dim indeed.” Some plants in Borneo’s tropical rain forests “maximise the meagre light that falls on them in a different way. They coat the underside of their leaves with a purple pigment. This catches the light after it has passed through the thickness of the leaf and redirects it back into the leaf tissues so that the chlorophyll has a second chance to utilise what is left of it.” (Attenborough 1995:47-48)
