How does a houseplant signal that it is starving?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
August 21, 2003
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Commonly called the corn plant for its superficial resemblance to maize, Dracaena fragrans (Linnaeus) Ker-Gawler is native to western Africa. The variegated cultivars 'Warneckei' and 'Massangeana' were once classified as separate species, but are now considered horticultural forms of this reliable houseplant. Houseplants are houseplants simply because they tolerate low humidity and low levels of light. Like other houseplants, the corn plant adapts to this deprivation to a point.
A person cannot 'feed' a plant. Providing it with elements—nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, iron, manganese, and magnesium—is fertilizing it. Plants manufacture their own food—sugars and starches. The energy coming from sunlight is converted into chemical energy stored in adenosine triphosphate (ATP), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+), and in the carbon to carbon bonds in sugar. A plant needs four things to store energy and 'make food': water, elements, carbon dioxide, and specific wavelengths of light found in sunlight and some types of light bulbs.
Leaves are extremely sophisticated solar panels. The chlorophyll molecules capture photons and use the energy to split water molecules, H2O. The oxygen goes into the atmosphere; it's what animals use out of each breath. Each exhalation by an animal contains carbon dioxide; six CO2 are taken up by the plant and converted into one sugar molecule, building blocks for the plant and food for animals. From these basic building blocks, plants make amino acids (protein building blocks), vitamins, and carbohydrates.
When a houseplant is kept in low levels of light, it starts to starve. The corn plant is especially good at signaling that it is starving. In an effort to capture all available photons, the plant makes more chlorophyll. Standard green corn plants become deep dull green, variegated corn plants lose the variegation and turn dull green. The plant is converting all available space in its leaves into solar energy collectors.
The plant has now spent the last of its stored energy making chlorophyll. If this effort is wasted and it still does not capture the photons it needs, it will die.
Shigenobu AOKI has a great photograph of Dracaena fragrans cv. 'Victoria' clearly showing the yellow marginal variegation of the leaves. To view the photograph, click on the link:
http://aoki2.si.gunma-u.ac.jp/BotanicalGarden/HTMLs/Dracaena-Victoria.html
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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