> Jan and anyone with insight on color and temps,
Thanks for your confidence.
> >>Does anyone know why the vft's color develops with the cold nights?
> >
> >I believe that the high temperature differential (warm days verses cold
> >nights) combined with the generally cooler (and cooling) conditions cause
> >some sort of chemical reaction in VFTs. All of my plants show redder
> >characteristics in the Autumn, even Sarracenias.
>
> I was hoping someone might be able to elaborate on this a bit deeper? Any
> idea what is happening in terms of chemical reactions?
Michael has answered much of this question already, so I will only
add a little note. Part of the degradation of chlorophyll depends on
enzymic activity. Therefore, you can inhibit the process by either
boiling (which will irreversibly denature most proteins) or freezing
(which will stop or at least slow down the reaction considerably).
However, normally the correlation between temp. anc colour is not
as direct as this. The (rather slight as compared to the experiments
mentioned above) temp. gradient in autumn leads to increased levels
of phytohormones like abscisic acid, and many of the physiological
reactions to be observed now in the plants on the N hemisphere are
responses to such hormonal signals (i.e. not directly to temperature).
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> Leaves on trees turn colors in the fall as the chlorophyl breaks down,
> so is this the same thing in the land of CP?
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Yes, at least partially.
Kind regards
Jan