In his article in an earlier Bulletin (2005, Vol 20 (3): p. 57), Terry Smale raised an interesting question as to the possible origin of the red-pigmented forms of lithops and other mesembs. Whilst, it is true that the biosynthetic pathways leading tothe formation of many of the pigments found in plants are complex, it does not actually take a great deal of alteration to these to substantially alter the colouration of leaves or petals. I guess there are two or three possibilities that might explainthe occurrence of these pigmented forms.
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