I got this from yahoo answers during a google search:
Yes, they can grow, but something with a lower "color temperature" would be better for most plants.
The number refers to the "color temperature," which is measured in degrees Kelvin (abbreviated K).
I won't go into how they arrive at these numbers, but the important thing to know is that the higher the number, the closer to the blue/violet end of the visible light spectrum the light emitted will be.
Natural sunlight is 5000 K. As you go lower than 5000 K, the light becomes more orange and then red. 10,000 K is yellow, shading into green. 18,000 K is decidedly bluish light. Values above 20,000 K will look very blue, shading into violet as you go higher.
A light with a color temperature over about 15,000 K is an "actinic" light. "Actinic" basically means "blue." Actinic lights are useful in aquaria for two purposes. The first is to give a deep-water appearance to the aquarium. Red, orange, and yellow wavelengths of light do not travel very far through water, so below a certain depth under water everything looks greenish to bluish, and at a greater depth everything looks blue to purple. The second purpose is related to that. Photosynthetic organisms that live at much depth (including the symbiotic algae that live in bodies of corals and other marine invertebrates) are adapted to use this bluish light more than light at the lower end of the color spectrum (because the latter isn't available to them), so it can stimulate them to photosynthesize more, and therefore grow more, if you use light that looks like underwater light.
Freshwater plants, though, mostly grow only in the shallowest water, so their ideal part of the spectrum is closer to that of sunlight in air-- anywhere from about 5000 K to 12,000 K is good for them. However, if the light is bright enough, most freshwater plants will also grow in 18,000 K light.
Floraglo is, as the name implies, the Hagen bulb designed most specifically for growing freshwater plants. But that doesn't mean no plant can grow under a different bulb.
