The Process Of Light To Energy In Cannabis Plants

Cannabis, like all other green plants, powers its growth thanks to photosynthesis. Photosynthesis takes light energy from the sun, absorbs some of it, and uses that energy to power its processes. These processes include respiration and the development of new plant cells. Molecules called pigments are responsible for absorbing light, and they come in a variety of styles including porphyrins, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Each of these pigments absorbs and stores different colors of light and uses them for different purposes within the plant. The most active and important of these pigments is the green-appearing chlorophyll, which absorbs blue and red light to power photosynthesis. Carotenoids are orange, red and yellow, and they support chlorophyll. 

The colors of autumn leaves are because of carotenoids. They absorb blue and green light and help to dissipate free radicals within plants to help them avoid sun damage. Anthocyanins absorb green, yellow, and orange light for cannabis plants. 

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They do this partially to hold it for chlorophyll to pass to them later, but they also seem to store their own energy for other processes that scientists haven’t quite figured out yet. Depending on the pH of whatever they’re in, anthocyanins can appear purple, blue, or red. Anthocyanins are what people see when cannabis turns those lovely deep purple, blue and black colors when exposed to cooler nighttime temperatures near the end of their lives. All of these pigments absorb light and convert it to chemical energy to provide a purpose.

Chlorophyll In Weed Plants

Chlorophyll is a group of pigments in plants that facilitate photosynthesis by absorbing blue and red light. They’re the most important pigments for giving plants the energy they need to survive. The chloroplast, where all the chlorophyll in a plant lives, is the result of a cyanobacteria being consumed without being digested by a plant ancestor cell a billion and a half years ago. Thanks to that, all plants can photosynthesize. Crazy, isn’t it? There are three known types of chlorophyll, called a, b and c. Only a and b are in cannabis plants. Chlorophyll a generally goes around soaking up any strong red and blue light on either side of the spectrum, while chlorophyll b also absorbs the more ambiguous shades like orange and indigo light as well. 

These pigments absorb light as electromagnetic waves that are turned into chemical energy, called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP for short. This basically charges up chlorophyll molecules and creates a chain reaction among them. This chain eventually reaches the carbon dioxide and water that plants take up through their roots and stomata. They take that buzzy ATP energy and use it to rearrange into a carbohydrate and, typically, an off gas of oxygen. This is the source of both new plant material, in the carbohydrate, and the source of atmospheric oxygen that plants provide. This process is reversed during respiration, which releases ATP and creates water again from the breaking of the same sugar molecules made during photosynthesis. This is how plants build their tissues.