Today I tackle a little plant puzzle that has perplexed me for years. Why do some plants, particularly many landscape shrubs, throw up a set of red leaves in spring, which permanently change to green by summer? The answer in a word: protection! The mechanism in a word: anthocyanins!
As always, I encourage your children to get out and find examples of this, if they can, in their own landscapes.
I reference a book and a scientific paper in the video and here are links to both:
Book: How Plants Work, by Linda Chalker-Scott
Article (warning, a heavy intellectual lift….great AP and UE challenge work!): Environmental Significance of Anthocyanins in Plant Stress Responses, by Linda Chalker-Scott
Posted in Around The Garden