Why do some plants have green leaves?

The blue color in the leaves of some Thu Hai Duong flowers is not only a factor that makes the tree stand out more but is also an important part to help plants absorb energy in low light conditions.

Chloroplasts in leaves help absorb energy from light with a ring structure that helps plants absorb light better. It is this ability that makes Thu Hai Duong tree grow in places where there is a lack of light. This ring structure is called the "photonic crystal ", which prioritizes the reflection of the blue wavelength of light and helps plants absorb red light and green better for energy production. The study was published in Nature Plants in October.

The sparkling blue of Thu Hai Duong's leaves.(Begonias).

Colors in plants and animals often come from pigments and chemicals that can absorb certain wavelengths and colors of light. In other cases, organisms produce their own colors from micro-structures within the body. In Begonia , this structure exists inside chloroplast with the name iridoplasts . When light is reflected by these microstructures, the reflected waves produce a sparkling blue.

Structure of Iridoplasts exists in the chloroplast system of Thu Hai Duong leaves.

The structure of chloroplasts inside the leaves also plays an important role in supporting energy absorption. In addition to being solar-absorbing plants, the distribution of chloroplasts and the Iridoplasts microstructure causes reflection and scattering of light, which makes the time that light passes through the leaves longer and The leaves will absorb more energy.

" Iridoplasts can basically carry out photosynthesis in low light conditions, when chloroplasts do not work. However, they cannot operate when the light source is too strong. Hai Tang has a chloroplast system like many other plants and iridoplasts microstructures act as a backup energy system in low light conditions " - Heather Whitney, biologist from Bristol University, co-author of the study stated.

Thu Hai Duong is a popular and easy to grow flower variety.

In addition to Thu Hai Duong, many other plants also have chloroplast structure, so the ability to find other plants with microstructures operating with the same mechanism is not difficult. In essence, trees cannot move so they have to change their internal mechanisms to survive. These iridoplasts microstructures can be a step in the evolutionary process to adapt to the environment.