Red pigment in Acacia phyllodes

[Animistic]

So my Acacia Obtusifolia is pumping out new growth at the moment and associated with this increased growth is a red pigment in the leaves. Now I have heard that this red pigment is an indicator of alkaloids but I've heard nothing concrete. I cannot remember my Acuminata having a red pigment in the phyllodes although I do recall that it could have had some in the juvenile leaves.

So does anyone know how reliable of an indicator the red tips are of alkaloids? Obviously the phyllodes may contain alkaloids and none of them have to be dmt but let's pretend that I found an acacia longifolia that had slight red pigmments would it be likely that it is an active strain? On an old industrial site I believe I have found some A Longifolia var Sophorae which has a red pigment in the new growth, although this ID could be a mis-identification.

On a side note last spring when I sprouted a number of Acacia Floribunda, amungst others, to be wild planted (They were all native to my area). I noticed that some had this red pigment and other did not. With the variability of Floribunda could this be a way to determine the active varieties from the non-active (but still nonetheless just as awesome!) varieties?

Peace,
A.

 

[Hieronymous]

Hey Bro, it's been a while.

I've never seen or heard anything other than speculation about the colour of the phyllodes. My obtusifolias are showing that colour too at the moment. They also have an oily looking coating on the new growth.

A series of controlled experiments would help to get to the bottom of the issue.

My longifolia is showing a lot of red/purple growth at the moment too, it would be nice if that's active as it grows like a weed and I have to hack it back all the time.

 

[Animistic]

Indeed it has! Although a little birdy has told me that is likely to change in the not so distant future.

Regarding the longifolia, what colour is the stem? Here's something nen had to say about the active longifolia:

^hey acacian..the active A. longifolias tend to be a) more tree like/less prostrate. b) phyllodes like obtusifolia. c) paler-yellow end of the colour spectrum. d) tendency to reddish stems. e) the phyllodes will have a bitterness/astringency compared with non-active forms..photo here p23..they don't have many alks (at least in phyllodes) during flowering..see below..

From: Trying to improve Acacia information - Collaborative Research Project - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

Although he didn't say anything about red hues in the phyllodes it is possibly linked.

 

[--Shadow]

Hey guys,

A few of my acuminata's (broad) are showing this as well.

I actually think it may be sunburn, but this is purely a hunch.

I've been weening my acuminata's slowy from 12hr under fluro, to 12hr under the LED,

The red pigment only started appearing when I had them over the entire weekend, fully under LED for the first time (they are 1 month old tomorrow). But then again, it may be something to do with growth getting more intense light, and I also added CO2 on the weekend...

I had them under the fluros today, with the LED hitting them from the side. I'm gonna scale it back to just fluro for the next couple of days and monitor

 

[Hieronymous]

I wouldn't worry about that red pigment Shadow, if they are growing well and not showing any signs of burning then they should be fine like that.

I start my seeds in full sun and they get that colour too, it never seems to harm them. It's when they dry out that they can die at that stage.

 

[Animistic]

Yeah I agree Hieronymous, I wouldn't be too worried about the pigment appearing. I believe that Shadow is correct in thinking that the sun plays a role but I am not sure if that is the whole story because like I noticed with the floribundas some which had equal light just did not produce the red pigmentation. I wish I took note of which ones were which when I planted them so I could make notes later on.

I've got two baby acacia phlebophylla's which were started in low light settings and they haven't got the pigment in their leaves. I have recently put them under direct sun light for the first few hours of the morning, I'll post back if they get a red pigment to them.

Acacia phlebophylla definitely does produce this red pigmentation too, check out this photo.

Which is similar to my obtusifolia, but just redder (phelb is supposed to have a more desirable alkaloid profile than obtusifolia isn't it?)

Something to keep in mind is this isn't only related to new growth, it can be found on fully mature phyllodes.

Some pictures of the new growth further down the plant. This supports the idea that the redness is related to the sun, this doesn't rule out being related to alkaloids as well. Something to also notice is that the stems aren't red either, unlike further up the plant. Red stems were one of the things nen said was a trait of the active longifolia.

Hieronymous, I think some of my new growth has an oily nature to it as well. Here's the best picture I could get to try capture it.

And finally I go my first few flowers on my narrow leaf acuminata, check it out!

On second thought, maybe I should store some pollen for some breeding experiments :twisted:

A.

 

[--Shadow]

On further observation, I no longer think it's "sunburn", but rather down to genetics of some sort.

After putting new seedlings under powerful LED's, there has been no corresponding increase of new red foliage . On the other hand, some seedlings under the gentler 20W fluoro's have displayed this red pigment in the stem and foliage

My A.Cyclops (below) are ALL quite red from the moment they sprout...

 

[DreaMTripper]

Nice seedlings there!
Ive noticed from some of the plants that Im observing that acacia pycnantha has a red streak running through it while is young.
The phyllodes have dark red margins and many, sometimes all, branches and stems are fully red.
As it gets older it loses the red in the phyllodes and the stems become a mixture of yellow/green and a ribena red.
Some strains develop blackcurrant red phyllodes and a long thin trunk. Others the same type of trunk but with only green phyllodes.
The trunk produces some sort of white talcum powder type substance that sporadically coats it.

 

[--Shadow]

Almost all red color in plants is produced by anthocyanins which are powerful antioxidants that mop up damaging free radicals and reactive forms of oxygen in both animals and plants.

Stress such as an insect attack causes plants to produce more of the pigments which also act as a shield against extra light.

So.. it seem to also act as some for of sunburn protection

 

[Animistic]

Thanks for the info Shadow & DreaMTripper. I have made further observations of my obtusifolia and I have more evidence that the appearance of red pigment is not a light related occurrence. Obviously being in the southern hemisphere the sun is getting more intense as summer approaches. So if it were sunburn it would be pretty safe to assume that it should be at least as red as it was in winter and more likely more. Well this isn't the case, it's actually less red and while the redness has faded flowers have appeared.

Way too early to draw conclusions but it is interesting that flowering is confirmed to be a bad indicator for tryptamines in a lot of species (I think I remember reading that Acuminata is an exception) and that red phyllodes are apparently an indicator. It's a shame I didn't do an extraction on the bush when the redness was prolific otherwise I'd have more actual extraction data to go off.

I'm attaching some photos so you can see how the plant looks right now. First pic is of the reddest phyllodes on the tree and second is of the developing flowers!