Celebrating green in coming spring
By My Courier-Tribune
Missouri Department of Conservation naturalists celebrate the colors of Missouri’s fish, forests, and wildlife and there is no better month than March to celebrate the coming of green. Green is everywhere in nature.
March sees the amorous serenade of several species of frogs. Leopard frogs show dark bronzy spots on a mossy green background, perfect for avoiding hungry herons and raccoons by camouflaging into the grassy pond edges. Their call sounds like a laughing chuckle, perhaps their mate prefers a sense of humor?
Later in the year the green tree frogs of the swamp sing a honking call reminiscent of a child’s bike horn near verdant, swampy wetlands. Those who live close to suitable habitat may be familiar with these frogs stuck near mid-summer porch lights like so many globs of green apple bubble gum.
These creatures wouldn’t bother with green if it weren’t for one family of pigments, the chlorophylls. These pigments, more than any other on the planet, are vital to our existence as we know it. The magic trick begins like this. Within the leaf of a plant lives a stack of structures called “chloroplasts.”
At the simplest, light energy from the sun hits these chlorophyll-filled structures and produces enough energy to change carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. It is this very oxygen from plants and algae which allows you to breath, and it is this sugar which fuels not only the plant’s growth, but the nutrition in food — from starchy potatoes to ripe, succulent strawberries. Nature’s solar cell goes beyond this however. The power of green even affects our weather patterns. The moisture from forests, prairies and other vegetation has impacts on temperature, clouds, and wind. This world shaping weather seems to be a magical feat and is powered by a humble green pigment.
So as leaf-out begins in the late weeks of March, and the muted shades of winter twigs begin to glow with spring green buds, take a moment to enjoy the magic and “breath it all in.”
