Image – Wikimedia/Jorge Franganillo
How come some plants turn red in the fall? And why are there others doing it at other times of the year? The truth is that the reason will depend a lot on the season we are in and the state of health of the plant itself.
So I think it is interesting to explain them so that, in this way, you know Why do plant leaves turn red?and whether or not something should be done about it.
It’s his reaction to the drop in temperature
Or what amounts to the same thing: it’s autumn, it’s starting to get cold, then little by little it stops feeding those leaves. Because? Because If I continued to feed them, if I continued to send them sugars and starches from the roots, when the frosts came, I would suffer a lot.: not only would it lose the leaves, but it would also have to expend energy to close the buds -from which the foliage springs-. And no matter how fast she is, she couldn’t help but have a bad time. In fact, I would venture to say that you could lose even the most tender branches.
But, how come they turn red? This is due to the pigments they have in the leaves.: the main and best known is chlorophyll, which gives them a green appearance, but they also contain carotenoids and flavonoids, among which anthocyanin. Well, the first to start producing less and less is chlorophyll; For this reason, the other two, although their production is also falling, are doing so at a slower rate.
Now, we would be short if we left it here, because, yes, the cold is a reason, but… why do some have red leaves and not another color? Well, American researchers have discovered that this is due to the amount of nitrogen in the soil where they grow up If it is low in this nutrient, plants will tend to produce more red pigments.like the anthocyanin, so as the chlorophyll is lost, the red pigments will be more exposed (here is the link to the discovery).
He is very thirsty
If we have a tree that turns red in the fall, but is very thirsty in the summer, its leaves may take on this color prematurely.. Of course, this will only happen if the soil, in addition to being dry, is poor in nitrogen, as we have just said.
But although a red plant is very pretty, It is important to water it if it is thirstyespecially if we have it in a pot because that’s when the substrate dries much faster than garden soil.
They use red pigments to protect themselves
Image – Flickr/barloventomagico
There are several plants that are red, or partially red, all year round. For example, he cordyline fruticosa of red leaf, or the Fagus sylvatica var atropurpurea (red-leaved beech). There are even succulents which, as a result of prolonged exposure to the sun, end up with the tips of their leaves red, such as the Sedum palmeri.
Well, it’s not like that because of the cold, but because of the sun. And that’s it the red pigments protect the leaves from ultraviolet rays and also prevent them from producing free radicals -these are unstable molecules which, when produced in large quantities, damage other molecules, accelerating aging-. So the more anthocyanins and other red pigments they produce, the longer they can last. But does this mean that we must protect green plants? No.
The plants, each one of them, are genetically prepared to grow in either shade, partial shade or full sun. Whatever the color of its leaves, it is important that we know where to place them so that they grow properly. Of course, we will have to be more careful if we have one that needs to be exposed to the sun, but it had never hit it before, because not being used to it would burn it. In this specific case, what we would do is put it in partial shade, and slowly and gradually expose it to the sun.
As you have seen, there are three very interesting reasons why plants can turn red at certain times of the year.