Plant Cells

[BartMerhere]

Can Plants survive without light? How Long?

[monotreme101]

You need to specify what you mean by plants. I am sure the life span a plant could survive without light differs.

Ultimately, all the plants I can think of need light to survive. Light is needed for photosythesis to make ATP (energy), which in turn produces a sugar (i think glucose), and of course oxygen (but the oxygen is just a by-product; the plan does not need the oxygen. It is equivalent to waste. Similar to how we exhale carbon dioxide). The sugar is food for the plant=energy source.

Photoynthesis is basically two steps:

1) In the light to make ATP and NADPH (and Oxygen; however, this is not needed in step two)

2) Light independant or Calvin Cycle or carbon reduction (all the same thing). This step uses the ATP from the light reaction to make the ultiate goal for the plant: the sugar I previously mentioned...

So in order to function properly the light is needed. Also, when in the dark the plant loses the green pigment b/c the chromoplasts (pigment) and chloroplasts (photosynthesis) die

[bearhug]

It also depends on whether the plant is a C3, C4, or CAM Plant

[MrMistery]

Why don't people use the search function? There is a thread about the very same thing where i posted tones of stuff on the subject, and i'm not the only one: viewtopic.php?t=1755