What Makes Grass Green?

Another one of those questions we all get asked, but often don't know the answer and assume it is because it is! However, if you want to show off how clever you really are, then the reason that grass is green is all down to a pigment known as chlorophyll. The chlorophyll pigment, which is naturally produced in all vegetation, uses the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is where a plant produces sugar in the presence of sunlight. The word photosynthesis' means literally to synthesize or 'make' from light (photo). There are, of course some plants which do not contain chlorophyll, and these generally get their nutrition (food) by other means. Some examples are the fungi which decompose dead, and sometimes living, tissue, for their food. You will find that a green plant needs light to make food. If the source of light is cut off, the plant dies. Mushrooms, which are fungi, do not require light to make food (they decompose matter as I mentioned above) and you can find mushrooms growing in almost total darkness.

The pigment that gives grass and all other types of plants their natural green color is termed as choloroplast. It is a substance found within the matter of the cells, each one of which comprise of four varieties of colors or pigments. These pigments are namely cholorophyll a, cholorophyll b, xantophyll and carotene.

Cholorophyll a is, by far, the strongest pigment and is blue-green in color. Next comes cholorophyll b, which has a yellowish green tinge to it. The third pigment xantophyll is yellow in color while the last one that is called carotene has a bright orange hue. The bright color of carrots is actually the contribution of carotene, whose name also bears a strong resemblance to the name of carrots.

The color of grass varies from season to season as the extent of each pigment in the choloroplast alters, like the assortment on an artist's palette, giving the grass a diversity of colors throughout the year.

A green pigment called chlorophyll which is found in the chloroplast of a plant cell.

It is green because it absorbs all colors of visible except for green. This color is reflected to your eye and you brain interprets it as green.