• Question: how are leaves green

    Asked by ticehurst to Andrew, Ash, Gem, Paige, SJ on 25 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: SarahJayne Boulton

      SarahJayne Boulton answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Leaves are green because they contain an important coloured compound called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is a protein that has a thing called a ‘haem group’ which is a part of a protein wrapped around an iron ion. It’s this special part of the protein that makes it appear green (it’s actually very similar to the part of haemoglobin protein that makes it blood appear red!!). The chlorophyll plays an important part in absorbing light energy for conversion into chemical energy in the form of sugars through the process of ‘photosynthesis’ (‘photo’ meaning ‘light’ and the ‘synthesis’ bit meaning ‘made’, so the sugars are ‘made by light’).

      If you’d like to find out more about chlorophyll and photosynthsis you can check this out (you’ll need flash player)::

      http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/p.marston/pages/flash/samples/photosyn.swf

      Enjoy! 🙂

    • Photo: Gemma Staite

      Gemma Staite answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Spot on answer from SJ. The main thing I remember from plant biology at school is photosynthesis.

      Just to add, leaves also contain other pigments called carotenoids, which aid the chlorophyll. Also, the green light is largely reflected which allows us to see the leaves as green.

    • Photo: Paige Brown

      Paige Brown answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Good answer SJ! Leaves are green because of the pigment they contain called chlorophyll, which absorbs sunlight in all different colors except for green! That means that the green light is reflected off the leaves and winds up in your eye, making the leaves look green!!

      Did you know that some leaves and flowers have nanostructures on them that either make water ball up and fall off, keeping the leaves and flowers clean (like a rose)?! Other leaves let water stick to them, while the lotus leaf lets water droplets roll off easily! This is called the lotus effect, and scientists have harnessed this effect to make water repellent clothing and self cleaning windows, for example! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_effect

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