this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2026
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I'm still not following. What part of "blue air" imparts chlorophyll with its color? I get the sun. I understand how light works (reflection, refraction, and scattering). I understand our perception of light on a neuological level (including post-processing) to an extent that most people haven't studied. Why "blue" air make green plant?
My guess would be that plants optimize also for absorbing a significant amount of the light they receive from the blue sky, so they still get some when direct sunlight isn't available.
I hate that one misclick can delete my comment.
Would that be a natural, logical discernment for someone trying to figure out why chlorophyll is green? I say that this is an unhinged take and everyone siding with it should feel like... an amount of bad. It's pretty misleading by virtue.
This comment here had a much more grounded explanation
I mean, I love it and thanks for sharing, but it's a pretty poor discernment for why "blue air" makes chlorophyll green. Sure, plants might be opportunistic in a respect and attempt to move to a color direction that gathers the maximum amount of the sun's rays. Why was the initial post, "sky blue, sun yellowish = plant green"? Why was that met with agreement?
It's not something that any Biologist would yield to as an explanation. Even if they respected themselves. (Sorry, Biologists. I know.)
Mix blue and yellow paint and you end up with green paint.
So, is the blue from the water in the plant or the air?
The air is blue buddy so it come from thsi
Oh, damn. Reductionist.
Air is light blue because it filters out red, which is why chlorophyl has optimized for the mix of the remaining wavelengths yellow and blue, which is green. Color theory of additive blending.
(Our sun is slightly yellow, which is why the sky isn't cyan and why alot of tropical plants are darker green close to brown/red)
Are you saying that chlorophyll naturally evolved to take in specific wavelengths of light given the availability of light in specific frequencies in response to how the sun's light moves through our amosphere? I would get it, but that would be so frustrating of a response to, "why air blue matter".
I mean, yeah. I'm reaching for the, "why", though. Specifically for chlorophyll, which reflects light with a specificity. As does carotene in dying trees in the fall.