My five year old asked me why plants and leave are green as opposed to being black, blue, silver, golden, etc. I know about plants containing chlorophyll but how do I explain it to her without sounding all science-y?
In: Biology
So, plants are green specifically because they reflect green light instead of absorbing it for photosynthesis.
Why they reflect it isn’t actually a settled answer, but to my knowledge one serious proposal is because there’s just too much green light in sunlight to safely handle, and so they do it to prevent damage to the light sensitive molecules that perform photosynthesis.
There are photosynthesising algae on the sea that do absorb green light, likely because water already absorbs light, so there’s no risk of overexposure and the problem instead flips to getting as much light as possible.
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