my pogostemon stellatus turns purple at the tips

[yannachka]

this is one of my favorite plants, it grows well and really fills out large tanks. i have some growing in a high tech set up and the leaves start turning purple once they are about 4-5” from the surface. easy way to add color to all the green!

 

anyone else getting this with their pogo? any other plants that surprised you with their color? i wasn’t aware when i got it that it does turn purple in high tech. 

[Daniel]

All the purple is on the underside of the leaves right?

[yannachka]

23 minutes ago, Daniel said:

All the purple is on the underside of the leaves right?

it’s only on the underside on the lower leaves, the top leaves are entirely purple

[Daniel]

I have seen something like that on terrestial plants like Tipularia discolor the Cranefly Orchid, or Hepatica americana – the round leaved liverwort. All are green on top and purple on the bottom. It is a pattern I have seen on dozens of species of plants. Most often on plants that are in areas of reduced or more diffuse light (or maybe that is the only place I have noticed them).

And despite having a botany background and despite having asked some botany heavyweights about the cause of this phenomena, I still haven’t gotten a satisfying answer.

Plant pigments are at the heart of photosynthesis so you would think the answer lies down that path.

But it does look cool though.

[yannachka]

the closer the stem was to the surface, the deeper and brighter purple it is. 

this is the top of the plants:

unedited photos from my phone taken just now.

this is the underside, you can see a green stem going through the center on the underside that is purple on the top:

 

im not dosing any iron into this tank, i only dose the og flourish i still have a gallon of since it’s low in nitrates, it is high light with co2 though. i just never see this plant advertised as a “red” plant when it clearly has the potential to be, well more purple.

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by yannachka

[MattyIce]

Some plants produce something called anthocyanins, it helps convert excess light into heat energy, working like sun screen to help prevent the part of the plant in high light from burning up.

[ShellFire]

Beautiful!