Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 10:04:48 +0200 From: Wim Leys <Wim.Leys@vlm.be> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1716$foo@default> Subject: Re: (Dumb?) questions about anthocyanins etc
Dear Bill,
I am as much interested in the answers to your questions as you are.
Though I can not answer them in the way you want, I can however add my
$0.02 based on observations.
> i) Someone asked a while back about identifying anthocyanin free cobra
> lilies in the seedling stage, and the answer that came back was that they
> should not display a red tip when the pitchers first emerge. ...
>
It is definitely possible to identify the anthocyanin free form in the
seedling stage. The red coloration of the tip (of the growing tip and or
the "full grown" juvenile pitcher) is totally missing. I can see a
distinct difference between the seedlings.
> iii) Is it true that strongly coloured varieties are less efficient at
> photosynthesis? ...
>
I noticed something similar with VFT's. Plants that coloured brightly,
were smaller than plants that had a "healthy blush" in their traps.
As I was (am) always looking for bright red coloured VFT's, I kept those
plants separate from the others, feeding them insects to get bigger
plants. They would indeed get bigger but the newly produced traps
invariably displayed only a "healthy blush", the bright red coloration
would not appear in new traps. It seemed this bright red coloration was
not genetically determined.
So I was thinking this might be a mechanism for small "hungry" plants to
help in attracting prey. Aborting this trick, once they were well fed
again. ??
Kind regards
Wim
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