As with animals, there are also albino specimens among plants . In this case, instead of lacking melanin, the plants are free of chlorophyll , the pigment that allows photosynthesis and gives stems and leaves their green color.
Without this compound, these organisms cannot self-produce the energy they need to develop, so they usually do not survive for long. However, there is one species that has learned to manage to overcome this mutation and grow almost normally: the sequoia.
This immense conifer can reproduce asexually through propagules – underground stems – from which new individuals are born and subsequently separated. In exceptional circumstances, the new tree is albino and acts as a parasite of its predecessor. In this way, throughout its life, which can last more than a thousand years, it will remain attached to it, feeding on its nutrients.
Although they do not usually grow as much as the common redwoods – capable of exceeding a hundred meters in height – the so-called ghost trees can measure up to twenty meters. Only about two hundred specimens are known to exist. Most live in the Henry Cowell Redwoods and Humboldt Redwoods National Parks, both in California (United States).
There are other plants, such as species of the genus Monotropa , that naturally lack chlorophyll. They are saprophytes and parasites of the fungi that make up their microcorrhizae.
