Walking through nature with John Palka, a neuroscientist who loves plants and ponders big questions
By John Palka — Posted December 27, 2015
Without the green of the forests and the fields, and also of the plankton floating in the upper layers of the oceans, the lives of the Earth’s animals, including our lives as human beings, would not be possible. Where does all this magical green come from? It comes from the presence of the pigment chlorophyll in the cells of the leaves and whatever other parts of a plant are green.
By John Palka — Posted December 13, 2015
Suppose we take a walk in the springtime woods. In the wettest places, the green leaves of the spectacular swamp lanterns blend in well with the surrounding plants, including the mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms we met in a previous post. In contrast, the flowering heads—the lanterns—seem to truly glow a brilliant yellow. Why are the two parts of a single plant so different from one another?