eli5: How do flowers come in a wide variety of colors besides green, despite most plants’ chlorophyll reflecting green light?

Question

I might have it mixed up, but do flower pedals not have chlorophyll? Or does their chlorophyll absorb green light and reflect other lights? Where do flower pedals get their color from?

In: Biology

Answer 1

There are actually green flowers as well. But these are hard to see among all the leaves and stems. And it kind of defeats the purpose of flowers to attract insects for pollination as these insects do not look for green things but brightly colored things. So you mostly find green flowers in plants that do not require insects for pollination.

Normal flowers though do not have chlorophyll in the petals. The flowers are purely for reproductive reasons and does not collect any energy from the sun. Instead there are various other pigments produced by these plants. It is actually a very common sources of pigments we humans have. For example indigo dye is extracted from indigofera flowers.