monocot seedlings without chlorophyll

monocot seedlings without chlorophyll
Tim Eck via pbs (Fri, 12 Feb 2021 08:50:11 PST)

Interesting question. I have read of using various bacteriocides to 'cure'
photosynthetic organisms of their chloroplasts and assumed that all
bleached organisms had no plastids. But there is no reason there would not
be plastids that had lost photosynthetic ability but retained basic
metabolic ability.
An interesting property of this phenomenon is that it serves as an assay to
determine how much growth is provided by the seed (embryo + endosperm). I
see it often in some lines of Hippeastrum.
Tim

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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