Purple Plant?

[Navin]

I have a plant at home- the Tradescantia purpurea whose leaves are completely purple when placed in direct sunlight. However when placed in a shaded area, the leaves tend to become green. Can anyone explain this?

Also, how is the plant able to photosynthesize if the whole plant is purple? I know that in normal variegated leaves, there are green areas that can carry out pohtosynthesis, but in this plant, there are no green areas visible at all - event the stem is purple! So how does it photosynthesize?

[Linn]

Navin
when the plant is in the shade the pigment that is responsable for the color purple is not reflecting as much of the light wavelength which makes it appear purple, as when it is in the sun.

the green color is not seen because the chlorophyll is being hidden by the other color pigments.

Photosynthesis can work fine with non-green catalysts too .
~Lynne

[Navin]

Here is a picture for your amusement.

[Linn]

I have them all over my yard
although they are green leaved. Want any more???

[tupistra]

hey guys!
I'm a rookie here,and my mother tongue is not English,so it is a little difficulty for me to give some comments .But this topic is very interesting.I also find in the field that flowers in the mountain are always purple.Someone said in the mountain ,the altitute is high,and ultraviolet radiation is strong,so purple flowers can resist the hurt of ultraviolet radiation .Do you think it's right?

[MrMistery]

Might be. the human skin works in that exact way with melanin synthesis. But are sure that the UV intensity is higher there? Because this sounds a little strange to me. This sounds just like a PhD thesys(and someone probably did it)"Role of purple pigmentation in mountain-dwelling angiosperms"

[tupistra]

Thank you for your cue!
I'm sure the UV is very strong on the mountain here.Because the altitute almost get 3700-4000 meters, and people lived there have black skin. There are more purple flowers than white or other colours.You means some doctor do the work about this aspect ?Were there some papers published about it?I think it's very complex,maybe it's also for pollination ,easily identified by the pollinatior.

[Linn]

hey guys!
I'm a rookie here,and my mother tongue is not English,so it is a little difficulty for me to give some comments .But this topic is very interesting.I also find in the field that flowers in the mountain are always purple.Someone said in the mountain ,the altitute is high,and ultraviolet radiation is strong,so purple flowers can resist the hurt of ultraviolet radiation .Do you think it's right?

I have not heard that purple colored flowers resist radiation more than other colors. (not saying they dont..I just never before heard that.)

On some of the higher mountains the light intensity can be 4x greater.
So the plants do have nechanisms to protect them.

I think white flowers would better reflect light if this were the case.
Usualy plants foliage that is purple is found where light is lower.

So I think that your observation that some mountains have mostly purple flowers are probably indicitive of isolation. I am just a rookie too (2 academic years only) but life long hobbiest.

Some really beautiful and unique flowers are found on mountains, For example the Blue Poppy from the Himalayan Mountains:

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/ ... s_beto.php

[tupistra]

very beautiful flower!I have saw it on the mountain before.There are also many unique flowers like it ,which only can find on the high altitute mountain , such as Gentiana.
http://www.kminvest.cn/oledit/UploadFil ... 011699.JPG