Anthocyanin

Anthocyanin [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of name


	Anthocyanin is a flavonoids pigment that is responsible for the coloration of many plants part like flowers, fruits and the leaves in autumn.

Anthocyanin is often observed in the plant kingdom, Anthocyanins create the blue, red and purple colour in plants such as in bromeliads, carnivorous, berries, etc. This plant pigment can be used as a pH indicator because it changes from red in acids to blue in bases. But not all plants have this pigment for examples the red pigment pigment in the plants of the Subclass Caryophyllidae (e.g. Cactaceae, Portulacaceae, Mesebrianthemaceae etc..) is due to a completely different pigment the betalain. (compare with: chlorophyll, betalain, carotenoid, flavonoids)

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994