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Plant Taxonomy via Pigment Chromatography

CHROMATOGRAPHY OF PlGMENTS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF PLANTS

Although the chromatogram in the upper right is purely hypothetical, it should give the observer an idea of what one might look for in such a chromatogram were one to do one in reality. And it should show the power that such a simple technique like paper chromatography has. No wonder the inventor won the Nobel Prize!

In this chromatogram, one should see a number of things:

1. That the grasses (monocots such as corn and cane) have both an additional yellow and an additional green band. Since all the other bands are similar to those of the dicots (rose, maple and daisy), it appears that grasses may have evolved from dicots.
    
2. It appears that pines and magnolias are very similar. Indeed, they are both classified as conifers even though many magnolias are deciduous. (In fact, so are some of the needled trees such as the "dawn redwood", Metasequoia.)
    
3. The big changes come with the lower plants such as the mosses, which seem to have most of what is possessed by the cyanobacteria (oldtime "bluegreen algae"). It could be conjectured that the cyanobacteria are the "trunk" of the tree of photosynthesis - all photosynthetic organisms came from them. As evolution continued, "higher" branches "discovered" new pigments. Yet since all the specimens shown possess a same green band, that type of chlorophyll is the fundamental. It is the primordial photosynthetic pigment. Again, remember that all this is based on the mythical chromatogram shown. What exists in reality is left up to you, if you want to make it your project. And, to keep you animal lovers in your place, remember that this "discovery" by early life - this photosynthesis - is probably more important than any evolutionary step in animals with one exception - the brain, and all that led up to it.

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