Why aren’t plants red? Or blue? What happened millions of years ago that made green the chosen color?

Well, a few very smart people have a couple ideas…

Image: Green wheat, with the sun rising behind it. But why are plants green?

Source: Pixabay

One of our favorite YouTube channels, Physics Girl, raises the great question: why aren’t plants black? If black is the presence of all colors and can absorb the most energy for the plant, why wouldn’t this be the color of choice for our leafy friends? Why are plants green?

She lets us in on a few of the great possibilities in the following video!

Via: Physics Girl  1

If we’re being honest, I’m still left a bit confused. But that may be one of the reasons our world is amazing–a lot of it still remains a mystery to us. We don’t have all the answers, and in the pursuit of knowledge, we make fascinating discoveries that lead to innovations and breakthroughs that push us all forward.

Our ability to ask seemingly innocuous questions like, “Why aren’t plants black?” is one of our greatest gifts and most powerful driving forces.

In the spirit of curiosity taking us to new places to discover unusual facts about our world, here are a couple of cool articles we’ve featured on how we actually perceive color and what these colors mean around the world. Give them a look! (The second one includes that video from the great Physics Girl!)

14 minutes

There Are No Red Cars

Have you seen the mesmerizing video created with 17 million different colors? Take a look and then we'll show you why it's much more than just a curiosity... and why there are no red cars.

Read More

7 minutes

The Surprising World of Color

How much do we know about these various wavelengths of light that are constantly bouncing off the surfaces around us?

Read More

Stay open to new possibilities!

  • Sam

“No problem can be solved by the same level of consciousness that created it” – Albert Einstein

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Notes:

  1.  “Why Aren’t Plants Black? 🌿.” YouTube. Physics Girl, 22 Feb. 2017. Web. 01 Mar. 2018. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BRP4wcSCM0>. ↩

Published: March 14, 2018 | Article Tags:

Sam Burns

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Sam has written and edited hundreds of articles since joining the EWC team in 2016. She writes about topics from the wonders of nature to the organizations changing the world and the simple joys in life! Outside of the EWC office, she’s a part-time printmaker, collector of knick-knacks, and taster of cheeses.