Are there albino vegetables?

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Yes, but it’s very difficult to find them, because they die quickly. Albino plants cannot produce chlorophyll, the pigment that gives leaves their green color. Until then, so good. It turns out that chlorophyll is essential in photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that generates energy for plants. In normal plants, this very special substance is manufactured by structures known as chloroplasts (jeez!). But in albinos, genetic mutations make this equipment not work. “The plant dies when the supply of food in the seed runs out”, says botanist Cláudio Nicoletti de Fraga, from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden. What can happen are mottled vegetables, with some white leaves and others green. These still manage to lead life, because the green leaves manufacture food for the whole plant. But not all vegetables need chlorophyll to sustain themselves.

This is the case of saprophytic plants (jeez 2!), which get their nutrients thanks to an association with fungi that decompose dead animals and plants. “Some orchids use this process and develop leaves of different colors: white, red, yellow or mixed”, says the specialist.