An Academic Valentine: Blue for you or Pretty in pink?
Rajini Rao’s #AcademicValentine reminded me of this post about how pH can determine the color of Hydrangeas. Enjoy some science on St. Valentine’s day.
An Academic Valentine: The Science Behind Flower Color
http://goo.gl/8eOG6o via Rajini Rao
#ScienceEveryday
Originally shared by Chad Haney
Blue for you or Pretty in Pink?
About week ago I posted some pictures of my Hydrangeas that were just starting to bloom. http://goo.gl/Gn47h I noticed that on the same plant, some of the flowers were blue and others were pink. I knew that pH played a role but I found out that it is actually the aluminum in the soil that make the blue pigment possible. So for ScienceSunday curated by Allison Sekuler Rajini Rao Robby Bowles and me, I had to dig up more info to post along with pictures from today.
When the pH is acidic, aluminum in the soil, mostly from clay, allows a metal complex of aluminum and a anthocyanin, named delphinidin 3-monoglucoside, to form. After the pictures, the first figure is of the aluminum complex. The next figure shows various blue flowers with sections cut revealing the pigment cells and protoplasts.
Although the next two figures are about Morning glories, they were too interesting to pass up. A certain ScienceSunday co-curator always has her eyes on certain channels. Similar to the previous figure, there is a cross section-cut revealing the pigmented cells. However, the paper and figure go on to discuss how the Morning glory does not have metal complexation. The petal color changes during flower opening due to pH changes which were measured in the second part of the figure. The final figure show the purported ion channel mechanism.
Plants can be beautiful. When you throw in a dash of science, they can be beautiful and intriguing.
Edit I forgot to add that a lot of insects leave hydrangeas alone. Why? Aluminum toxicity – win – win for us gardeners.
Sources:
Kumi Yoshida , Mihoko Mori and Tadao Kondo
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2009,26, 884-915
DOI: 10.1039/B800165K http://goo.gl/VGlZH
So is it Men At Work – Blue For You (1983) or The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink ?
#ScienceSunday #ScienceEveryday
