Fussy Rainbow-Eaters

 

Leaves choose mostly orange-red

then bands of blue

to violet.

 

Using light to make a meal

of carbohydrate’s

sweet appeal

 

their chloroplasts feed on the Sun.

But only parts of

light’s spectrum.

 

Leaves don’t use all sunshine’s beams.

It seems they rarely

eat their greens!

 

Celia Berrell

First published in Double Helix(October 2015)
Reproduced with permission of CSIRO
www.doublehelix.csiro.au