Re: Colors of alien plants -- Scientific American

On Tue, 1 Apr 2008 05:14:19 -0700 (PDT), Brian Davis
> Hmm. I thought Purple Sulfur Bacteria used
> photosystems also built around Chlorophyll
> (bacteriachlorophyll in this case). So in that case it
> would seem green-wasting photosynthesis was evolved
> first, then later patched by accessory pigments to try
> to take advantage of the green sections of the
> spectrum. That's fine (& how I've previously viewed
> the process)

I stand corrected. Bacteriochlorophyll generally uses
lower frequency and longer wavelength photons than green
plant chlorophyll, contrary to what I said, and
creatures using use additional pigments to down****ft the
relatively high frequency photons in sunlight, wasting
energy in the process.  These additional pigments absorb
mostly in the green.

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