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. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > pbs mailing list > > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>