How does light pass through plants? (BioE80 Spr2015)
May 27, 2015 • 12:28 AM UTC
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hbae
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Of course, plants are not entirely transparent. However when we look at flower petals or leaves, we can see that some light passes through. So I asked the question, how does light pass through plants?
In order to answer my question, I looked closely at a small piece of a purple flower petal using the Foldscope. Through the Foldscope, I could see the shape of the flower petal that I could not with the naked eye; as it can be seen in Figure 1, the flower petal had small, tightly packed holes that allowed the light to pass through.
In order to answer my question, I looked closely at a small piece of a purple flower petal using the Foldscope. Through the Foldscope, I could see the shape of the flower petal that I could not with the naked eye; as it can be seen in Figure 1, the flower petal had small, tightly packed holes that allowed the light to pass through.
Figure 1 Then I looked at another piece of plant: a small piece of green leaf. Through the Foldscope, it looked like more light passed through the veins than through the blade. As shown in Figure 2, light is glowing through the veins. Although no holes are visible on this leaf, the translucency implies the presence of small holes that may be seen through a more magnifying Foldscope.
Figure 2 Although the shadows of plants only show the silhouette and not the small holes in the middle, the shadows are actually lighter than those of denser objects such as bricks. Under the same intensity of light, translucency of an object determines its shade of shadow, and thus implies the presence of small holes in the object that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Contributor: Michelle Bae
Contributor: Michelle Bae
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