Color of plant leaves - gear shift

["James Purchase" <jppurchase at rogers_com>]

In the discussion on the color of plant leaves, I think most of us have
focused on the part that is played by photosynthetic pigments (I know that
my focus has been on them). Maybe we're barking up the wrong tree (or at
least, shaking the wrong branch...). Most of the time the green color of
chlorophyll tends to mask the color of the other photosynthetic pigments
that might be present.

Perhaps the colors we see in some varieties of aquatics have very little to
do (directly) with photosynthesis.

http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/generalbotany/shootfeatures
/generalstructure/leafcolor/

James Purchase
Toronto