Abstract
Iridescence in shade-dwelling plants has previously been described in
only a few plant groups, and even fewer where the structural colour is
produced by intracellular structures. In contrast with other Selaginella
species, this work reports the first example in the genus of structural
colour originating from modified chloroplasts. Characterization of
these structures determines that they form one-dimensional photonic
multilayers. The Selaginella bizonoplasts present an analogous structure to recently reported Begonia iridoplasts; however, unlike Begonia species that produce iridoplasts, this Selaginella
species was not previously described as iridescent. This therefore
raises the possibility of widespread but unobserved and uncharacterized
photonic structures in plants.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 20180559 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of the Royal Society Interface |
Volume | 15 |
Early online date | 28 Nov 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2018 |
Keywords
- Iridescence
- structural colour
- Photosynthesis
- photonics