Photosynthetic plants are characterized by colors?

The green colour of plants is caused by chlorophyll which is a pigment found in cell organelles called chloroplasts. It is in the chloroplasts that photosynthesis takes place. Green plants are absorbing and utilising light from all parts of the spectrum except for green.

Red plants also have chloroplasts which are usually green but they also have a large amount of other pigments like betacyanine. Yellow plants have high amounts of the pigment betaxanthin. It is these pigments which are involved in the removal of free radicals within the plant caused by UV radiation.

Chlorophyll and the other pigments are clustered next to one another in the photosystems, and the vibrating energy passes rapidly from one chlorophyll or pigment molecule to the next, like the transfer of energy in billiard balls. Light contains many colors, each with a defined range of wavelengths measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Certain red and blue wavelengths of light are the most effective in photosynthesis because they have exactly the right amount of energy to energize, or excite, chlorophyll electrons and boost them out of their orbits to a higher energy level. Other pigments, called accessory pigments, enhance the light-absorption capacity of the leaf by capturing a broader spectrum of blue and red wavelengths, along with yellow and orange wavelengths. None of the photosynthetic pigments absorb green light; as a result, green wavelengths are reflected, which is why plants appear green.