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Name: Christopher S.
Status: student
Age: 7
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 
11/9/2003
Question:
Why are some plants purple on the outside?

Replies:
Good question. Some plants are purple because they have pigments (colorful chemicals) in them that are purplish. Some of these purplish ones are called beta-cyanin pigments.

Here is a fancy, technical example for red beets

http://www.agsci.ubc.ca/courses/fnh/410/colour/3_70.html

Here are some other plant pigments (colors) for color and nutrition

http://www.hort.wisc.edu/usdavcru/simon/publications/97hort0012.html

Anthony Brach, Ph.D

Plants that are green contain a lot of the pigment chlorophyll, but they also have other colors that you cannot see because there is so much green. Plants that are purple have more of the pigment anthocyanin than they do chlorophyll so they appear purple even though there is green underneath.

Van Hoeck


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