Beakers filled with various pinyon pine galls or normal needles are being weighed. Some galls are dark red or purple and contain anthocyanins while others are green. The reddish color seems to be controlled by a single gene. The galls or needles were placed in a large mortar (ceramic bowl) and frozen with chips of dry ice (frozen CO₂). The mixture was crushed with the pestle to a fine powder. The dry ice-plant material powder was then lyophilized (freeze dried). Later the material was extracted and partitioned with various solvents and then spread on silica thin layer plates and chromatographed. The "bands" of the silica gels were then bioassayed in the oat coleoptile test for auxins and the alpha-amylase test for gibberillins.

Chemical Ecology