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Does different kinds of leaves contain different
amount of chlorophyll? |
Question Date: 2018-12-10 | | Answer 1:
Yes.
There are two different kinds of chlorophyll that
are found in leaves: chlorophyll a (which
is medium green) and chlorophyll b
(yellow-green). The more light is absorbed by a
leaf (and so the darker it is), the more
chlorophyll and other pigments (like beta
carotene) there are inside. | | Answer 2:
Yes - leaves have different amounts of
chlorophyll. There are ginko leaves near me
that are green by the stem, where they still have
lots of chlorophyll, and yellow out at the edges,
where most of the chlorophyll is gone. Some
leaves have white on them, and there is [almost]
no chlorophyll in the white part. There are also
molecules with colors different from green
chlorophyll in many leaves, and they make the
leaves show different colors. I have plants that
had leaves so dark, they were almost black, when I
got them; but now I've watered them and their
leaves have lots of green in them, and they're
much bigger, and they're red-black now mostly just
at the edges and ends of the leaves. | | Answer 3:
Different kinds of leaves do contain different
amounts of chlorophyll. Variation has been found
across several
groupings plant/leaf types. For
example, chlorophyll content is larger in the
leaves of trees than in those of shrubs, which
in turn have more than herbs. In addition, the
"leaves" of evergreens contain more than those of
deciduous trees. There is also variation within a
single type of plant/leaf (e.g., looking only at
the leaves of trees). Some of the
factors
influencing chlorophyll content are
temperature, water (e.g. rainfall), light, and
environmental stresses on the plant. Plants
which receive appropriate amounts of these are
generally healthier and have more chlorophyll.
Interestingly, latitude and soil conditions were
found to have relatively little effect.
| | Answer 4:
Yes! In fact, it is different amounts of
chlorophyll that causes leaves to have
different colors. You probably already know
that chlorophyll is green. But, there
are lots of chemicals that are different colors in
leaves! For example carotenoids
are orange, xanthophyll are yellow, and
anthocyanins are red. The different
amounts of all of these chemicals changes the
color of the leaf.
So a leaf that is
very green probably has more chlorophyll compared
to the other chemicals. In the
fall, some leaves turn red or yellow. This is
because they have less chlorophyll
compared to the other chemicals. Click Here to return to the search form.
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