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Name: Jenna P.
Status: student
Age: 6
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999-2001
Question:
What makes the color in flowers?

Replies:
There are "pigments" (chemicals or coloring matter) inside the cells of the plant parts, such as the flower petals. The pigments only reflect certain wavelengths (or kinds) of light which we see as their color. For example, red petals have pigments that reflect red light.

Anthony R. Brach, Ph.D.

Flowers contain chemicals that absorb (or reflect) certain wavelengths of visible light more than others. So the flower absorbs or reflects some of the wavelengths of the "white light" from the sun, which is made up of all wavelengths. This selective absorption (or reflection) leaves more of some wavelengths and less of others. It is this selective absorption (or reflection) that our eyes perceive as "color".

Vince Calder


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