Quote:
Originally Posted by camille1585
Good question. I remember wondering the same thing during my plant physio classes! I think about orchids way too much.  I think orchids are mainly C4 and maybe CAM. I looked it up right now, and it pretty much confirmed what I thought, though I was surprised that there may be some C4 orchids as well.
If you can, try to get a hold of "The physiology of tropical orchids in relation to the industry" (2004). It has some good stuff about carbon fixation in orchids. Or go to Google books, most (if not all) of the book is viewable. Really interesting book, I think I'll go see tomorrow if the university library has it. It's very informative reading!
From what I read of it now, generally (but like always, there are exceptions!) it seems that thin leaved orchids fall into C3 and thick leaved orchids have all the characteristic of CAM fixation.
There is some evidence that some Cyms and a handful of other genera may be C4, but there is little concrete evidence for now.
What are you studying that involves learning carbon fixation? I love meeting other will be plant scientists here! |
I'm actually a marine biology major, but I was taking a general biology course, and one of the topics covered was this. I'm gonna take botany sometime in the future, as one of my electives. It should be an interesting class.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fieldsofgold
thanks Camille for the info and the book recommendation. Sadly my Uni doesn't have it but I took your suggestion and went on google!
here's the link:
The physiology of tropical orchids ... - Google Book Search
off to study for finals. Gosh will have to read this in my downtime but man does the book look juicy! |
Wow, thanks so much for the link! That fixation chapter was pretty interesting. I guess I should have known we'd see a mix of mechanisms from this family.
Hybrid Mode
