How do flowers get their colors?
Flowers contain chemicals called pigments. And the most plentiful pigment in the plant world is green chlorophyll. It is there, even though you do not see it, in the merry marigold and the blushing rose. Flowers contain other pigments that mask their chlorophyll and add other colors to their faces. The flowers can choose their colors from three or more groups of ehemical pigments. The color they choose is somewhat modified by green and yellow chlorophyll that happens to be present in the petal cells. The marigold makes up her face with carotene chemical, the same pigment that colors a carrot. Many red flowers use one or more of the vivid anthocyanin pigments, the same chemicals that color the beet. The modest violet dips into the same anthocyanin paint box. Its colors range from red to purple and blue. A group of yellow pigments called xanthophylls are common in small algae. But the yellows of the field and garden flowers usually come from the chlorophylls and the anthocyanins.
Why are roses red and violets blue? People always admire the beautiful colors of flowers in bloom but rarely does anyone know the perfect science that goes into the color production of one of the earth’s greatest natural beauties. The reason a flower has color is the same reason a person may be born with brown or blond hair, possess blue or green eyes, dress in colorful clothing or wear red lipstick. Color, when you boil it down to the simplest terms, exists solely to reproduce and procreate – in plants and in humans. • The Color Making Process The colors of flowers, such as the red in roses and yellow in marigolds, are found in pigments that are decided upon in the hereditary genome of the plant. Flower colors of red, pink, blue and purple come mainly from the pigments called anthocyanins, which are in the class of chemicals called flavanoids (what gives plants their color). Other pigments are carotenoids, found in tomatoes and carrots, that provide yellow, red and orange in the plast
