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By BRIDGE8 under license from Mangorolla CIC 2024
Hi leelee1997
the green colour in leaves is caused by the chemical Chlorophyll. This is a critical chemical that allows plants to absorb energy from the sun through photosynthesis. The reason it is green is because the chemical can absorb only certain wavelengths of light – mainly blue and red and REFLECTS the green light out of the plant – which is why we can see it!
You are right though – why then do some plants have red leaves and what happens in autumn for example!!?
well…
Leaves normally contain other pigments – some that are from the same family of chemicals that make carrots orange. But, the green chlorophyll ‘masks’ that colour. But some plants have really high percentages of these other pigments which makes them naturally purple, orange or red.
In Autumn, the chlorophyll fades away as the leaves are going to fall off and the plant does not make any mroe food or energy through winter. Because of this, the other pigments that were there ‘under’ the chlorophyll start to shine through.
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