Why are some leaves green and others red?
I don’t know why Gregg Gray’s answer was collapsed, but he’s right in a proximate sense. Leaves can become red as the plant “recycles” chlorophyll in the process of abscission. Removing chlorophyll allows other pigments (collectively called flavonoids) to shine through. Orange carotenoids, yellow xanthophylls, anthocyanins, and remaining blue-green and yellow-green chlorophyll A and B interact at various concentrations to produce the plethora of fall hues.Many plants have high concentrations of antioxidant pigments called anthocyanins, which can make leaves appear different shades of red depending on stress, like pH, drought, or cold. Japanese maple, red sweet potato leaves, and red cabbage appear red because they have a lot of pigment in their leaves. It’s the same reason for the colors of blueberries, blackberries, black rice, eggplant, cherries, purple corn leaves, and many others.The pigment appears to protect leaves from free radicals (reactive oxidative species), excessive UV light, pathogens, herbivory, heat, and other damage.ReferenceNeill, Samuel Oliver. “The Functional Role of Anthocyanins in Leaves.” Library and Learning Services, University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences, 1 Jan. 2002.
Are leaves true color orange, red, yellow and not green?
There are three types of pigments present in the leaves of the plants. Carotinoids which are yellow, chlorophyll which is green and anthocyanins which are red. The colour of a leaf is determined by the pigment that is present in the largest concentration. The leaf changes colour in autumn because the concentration of the chlorophyll decreases during the time and the pigments those were dormant or were masked till that time comes into prominence. So a leaf can be of any colour not exclusively green.
Why is the color of the leaves green?
Because the plant pigments absorb all other colour wavelengths but green colour wavelength is not absorbed hence emitted. Hence leaves are found in different shades of green depending on the wavelength.
Wht causes leaves to turn from green to yellow and red in autumn?
Leaves are nature's food factories. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose. Oxygen is a gas in the air that we need to breathe. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar is called photosynthesis. That means "putting together with light." A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color. As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" to begin getting ready for winter. During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll. The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves. It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall.
Do Green Apples turn from Green to Yellow to red? Or like yellow, green red??
Nope. different types of apples have different colors. Some apples always stay green, no matter how ripe they are. For example, Granny Smith. Some are yellow when ripe, some are red, some are a combination of green and red. The varieties of apples that end up being yellow or red do start out as green when they are small and young. Their color changes as they mature. Green ones are green the whole time.
Why do some leaves turn yellow and others red in the fall?
In various trees, certain amount of various chemical compounds exist. But the colors of these chemical compounds are obscured by the chloroplasts that make for a green color. Then as the end of the summer season approaches, the deciduous trees reclaim those parts in the leaves that are needed for later amd most of the chloroplasts die. It is at this time that the other colors are able to be seen. Those chemical compounds were always there, just not visible because of the chlorophyll. With the chlorophyll gone, they then become visable a few weeks before the leaves are shed. In evergreen trees (firs, and other plants that do not regularly shed leaves) those chemical compounds are there as well, but because they never shed their "leaves" in any dynamic display, we pretty much never see any color but green. Helpful??
In the fall, the leaves of many trees change from green to red or yellow.?
Two hypotheses can explain this color change: (1) In the fall, chlorophyll degenerates, and red or yellow pigments that were earlier masked by chlorophyll become apparent. (2) In the fall, red or yellow pigments are synthesized, and they mask the color of chlorophyll. How could you test these two hypotheses?