monocot seedlings without chlorophyll

monocot seedlings without chlorophyll
Michael Loos via pbs (Fri, 12 Feb 2021 08:55:48 PST)

Just tossing in a comment on this... we've used special strains of corn in
the lab that are specifically selected for lack of chlorophyll, greater
than 80% will be white. For seed germination analysis, those seedlings
lacking chlorophyll are rated as abnormal. They typically die quickly and
would never survive field trials. As seen in variegated plants, those with
the greatest amount of variegation tend to grow more slowly than their
all-green counterparts - more chlorophyll = more energy production and
faster growth.

Somewhere, a LONG time ago, there was a bit on albino African violets I was
reading. The gist of it was to water with sugar water to help maintain an
albino plant. This doesn't really fit into my logic and is barely
reasonable at this point, but it WAS a long time ago.

Michael
Upstate NY and it's quite cold here now...

On Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 11:08 AM Martin Nickol via pbs <
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

Good morning,

I am wondering if those seedlings lack chloroplasts and chlorophyll
entirely or if it they are so scarce that the green is not visible for the
naked eye. As no one would cut a precious seedling apart, I am not sure
there where any microscopic studies. This would be a way to establish if
the apparently bleached cotyledons or first leaves are just doing there
photosynthesis on a quite low level, but be therefore on the other hand
invisible to herbivores?

Martin Nickol

Am 11.02.2021 um 23:24 schrieb rw2229 via pbs <
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>:

On Mon, 1 Feb 2021 at 05:32:03 -0800, Kathleen Sayce <

kathleen.sayce@gmail.com> wrote

I am curious to know how typical it is for seedlings in monocot groups

to have no chlorophyll.

This fall I noticed a tall Agapanthus in my garden had a few seeds on

the stalk, so I gathered

those that were left and sprouted them on a window sill, along with

seeds from a Watsonia. So

far, 14 of the 16 Agapanthus have chlorophyll, 2 do not, 12.5 percent.

The Watsonia pot has 12

seedlings, 11 have chlorophyll, 8.3 percent.

12.5 percent seems high for a known fatal condition among

photosynthetic species.

How common is this condition?

I suspect more common among monocots than any of us realize. I've grown

bamboo from seed (on those rare occasions when any is set), and iirc a good
50% of the seedlings lack chlorophyll.

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