Anymal911 wrote:SerMuncherIV wrote:Anymal911 wrote:The plant is turning green because many CPs' leaves stop coloring up after a particular leaf has eaten... So if all of your plant's leaves have digested a meal right after growing out then they did not color up.
This is not what I have observed of the Drosera, and other CPs, that I grow. The only plants that seem to display this trait are D. burmannii and its close relative D. sessilifolia. No other Drosera that I know of turn green after feeding, their coloration is based upon the light that they're getting.
You may have not noticed before, but I know for a fact VFT traps stop coloring up after digesting a meal. When the trap reopens, all the ATP (energy) from that leaf is absorbed into the main part of the plant to be used in producing more traps, and the trap simply dies eventually, which is why it (usually) cannot close after reopening. In order to get a very colorful plant, it is better to not feed it as often, which is why plants grown indoors are usually more colorful (that and the fact that the grow light might help it more). While this may not be true for all Droseras, it is for VFTs, but it is simply an observation.
I don't want to seem like I'm ganging up on you, but I had always understood that all cps don't absorb energy from eating, only to absorb more materials to make them grow (such as nitrogen and phosphor). I think that the traps die after a while because the cells that literally expand to make the trap close wear out after closing too much.
I think the red coloration only has to do with how much light it is getting (except for of course, D. burmannii and it's relatives). I figured that the red coloration was to reflect some of the red light so they wouldn't be overloaded with excess energy (that's why I thought chloroplasts absorbed more red light than blue, Sermuncher) which they would be unable to use, though I am probably wrong about this.