Does the idea that maple could turn red all seasons ever occurs to you?

Now, WU Lifang's team from Institute of Technical Biology & Agriculture Engineering, Hefei institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced they could present this magic by a new invention that they called "Red painter". And their technology is in its application for the Chinese patent.

According to the team, the "Red painter" mainly consists of several bio-active chemicals, such as polyphenols and soluble sugars isolated from the Pistacia chinensis leaves, together with some amino acid and microelements, which significantly induces the anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin biosynthesis in the leaf and thus makes the leaf color turned into red in a few days after the treatment.

And the "Red painter" was proved to be without inhibitory side effects on the plant growth. Even some bio-active incidents of this product, such as polyphenols, to some degree, could promote the growth of the plants and increase the resistance the abiotic stresses.

This product could be applied to the Chinese tallow (Sapium sebiferum), which is an important bioenergy and landscape plant in China.

Actually, Chinese tallow in recent years is increasingly regarded as one of the most important landscape plants, thanks to its beautiful leaf color change in autumn. And this "Red painter" could present the red color in spring and summer, which greatly increased its value as landscape plant.

In addition, lab experiments show "red painter" could cast similar effects on some other woody plants, such as Jatropha curcas and Bischofia polycarpa.

Figure 1. "Red painter" induces leaf color change (left: control, right: "Red painter treated". (Image by NI Jun) 

Figure 2. Whole plant treatment with "Red painter". (Image by NI Jun)