What textbook is that ?, i think i may have read it. To answer your question, yes and no. Many textbooks use the very misleading chlorophyll in a solvent graph. Which represents only a few of the many light pigments used for absorbing photons. This often leads to the conclusion by authors that green is not absorbed and hence why plants are perceived green. However mccree proved in 1974 that plants indeed use green and is nearly as efficient as blue light. However textbooks still continue to mislead the public with the chlorophyll in a solvent chart. Not sure if this is intential blindness or just careless research. In any case the correct understanding of plant photosynthesis is commonly aware among physiologists and can be found across many research papers. This is one of those fields that basic textbooks are well behind on the more up to date understanding. In this case 50 years behind.
However, further research showed that although mccrees data was not incorrect, it was unfortunately incomplete. Due to the nature of the requirements to fully characterize the quantum yield of photosynthesis. Mccrees tests were done under very low intensity with monochromatic light. New data shows that the spectrum efficiency changes under higher light intensity.
Research also has shown that green light drives photosynthesis more effectively than red light, under full spectrum. This is through whats commonly called the sieve and scattering effect. Whats interesring here is that our understanding of why plants are perceived green is not because more green light is reflected, as this is not exactly the case. Its because green is only slightly more reflective at the surface and our eyes sensitivity is highest at that wavelength.Â
A recent study which i cite in my light technologies and will quote, looked at the effects of radiation quality on plant growth.
"MoreÂ
research shows that light quality is less important than light quantity. This comes from research where six of the most common electric lamps were used to asess the difference in radiation quality on plant growth. What they found was that although light quality played a part in morphological changes, the overall growths between different spectrums used were identical. Indicating that photosynthetic photon flux (Photon Quantitiy) was mostly the determining factor for leaf anatomy and growth."
Based on the current research done on plant photosynthesis over the last 50 years, it is clearly obvious that plants absorb light over the entire PAR spectrum, with very high efficiency across the board. It also shows that the spectrum efficiency becomes more flat under higher intensity as the anatomy of the leaf changes the reflective and transmittance characteristics as light intensity increases. Further research on electric lamps has also suggested that light quantity is more important than light quantity.
Basically the sum of current research on plant photosynthesis, i did detail this in my light technologies article.
