Nov 1st, '11, 11:50
Posts: 452
Joined: Jun 15th, '06, 13:04
Location: Lawrenceville, GA
by bearsbearsbears » Nov 1st, '11, 11:50
hop_goblin wrote:If memory serves me correctly, which has failed on occasion
I believe that purple bud is a result of a lack of sun while growing as part of the photosynthesis process.
It's not lack of sun. There's two main reasons:
High UV radiation exposure to tea growing at higher elevations. The leaves tinge purple to reflect back some of the violet light. These are purple-green in color.
A mutation that causes red-purple coloration in all buds, which mature to green.
Nov 1st, '11, 12:39
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Location: UK
by apache » Nov 1st, '11, 12:39
Me think the red pigment is anthocyanin. As bears^3 said, it causes is either due to genetic mutation or as proctection from strong uv. Normally, you only have 'etiolated' development if there is not enough light.
Interestingly, very often the underside of shade loving plants (e.g. their normally habitat are on the forest floor) also appear to be red, but this is for different reason, it serves to reflect the little available red specturm of light back to the mesophyll for photosynthesis, hence these plants can grow in low light condition.
Nov 1st, '11, 13:55
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by gingkoseto » Nov 1st, '11, 13:55
Purple bud could have different meanings. There is a purple bud cultivar/mutant in Yunnan that is used for some purple bud puerh. Some other products use very young buds (of regular cultivars) and call them "purple buds". This is not entirely unfounded. The word is from Lu Yu's tea classic - "purple buds are the best of tea buds". The purple buds Lu Yu spoke of are the youngest tea buds in spring. The look purplish because of low chlorophyll. But of course Lu Yu wasn't talking about puerh
Nov 1st, '11, 18:58
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by hop_goblin » Nov 1st, '11, 18:58
bearsbearsbears wrote:hop_goblin wrote:If memory serves me correctly, which has failed on occasion
I believe that purple bud is a result of a lack of sun while growing as part of the photosynthesis process.
It's not lack of sun. There's two main reasons:
High UV radiation exposure to tea growing at higher elevations. The leaves tinge purple to reflect back some of the violet light. These are purple-green in color.
A mutation that causes red-purple coloration in all buds, which mature to green.
UV! I knew it was something like that. Thanks for the correction.
