Mondo Knows Facts
Plants look green because chlorophyll reflects green light
Photosynthetic pigments absorb red and blue light while reflecting green wavelengths
Chlorophyll pigments inside plant chloroplasts are tuned to absorb light at specific wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. They absorb blue and red light efficiently to drive photosynthetic reactions, but reflect green light back to human eyes. Autumn leaf colour changes occur when plants break down green chlorophyll, exposing underlying yellow carotenoids.
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Tags: biology, chlorophyll, plants
Plants look green because chlorophyll reflects green light: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Photosynthetic pigments absorb red and blue light while reflecting green wavelengths. The figure is taken from Smithsonian, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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