Any Botanists here?

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TA wrote on 2011-09-02 22:36

I'm just curious...

What color of primary star would best support plant life of a peach (skin-like) color fauna? This question is probably best suited for Botanists, but answer if you can.

edit: Here's an update...

Quote from from Yahoo! answers:
You don't need a botanist to answer this. Think of it this way:

1) Why does a leaf look green? It's because it absorbs (uses) all wavelengths of light except green, which is reflected back to the eyes of the people looking at it.

2) The primary colors of light are cyan (a bluish green), magenta (a purplish pink), and amber (a brownish yellow).

3) If a leaf reflects green light, then it must be using magenta. It also uses some blue. But some of the blue, and the yellows get reflected.

4) If a leaf looks peach (a pinkish/orangish yellow), then it's reflecting those colors (amber, maybe a little of the magenta too).

5) So what colors of light does that leave that the plant would use if you take away pink, orange, and yellow? That would be the "ideal" color for the star to be.

NOTE - Just because a plant uses only certain colors doesn't mean that's the only color of light that the star will put out. From the example above with Earth plants, since they use mostly magenta and blue wavelengths, the "ideal" color for the Sun to be would be purple. Yet it's not (it's a yellow star) and the plants on Earth survive just fine. The Sun puts out enough light in these (red and blue)wavelengths that green plants are still able to grow. And so do plants with non-green leaves like coleus. These just have additional pigments besides chlorophyll that give the leaves a different color in appearance. But it's also why plant grow-lights look purple, they concentrate on just the colors the plants really need.

Quote from me, update:
So, simple answer?

Basically, is what you're saying that the opposite of the color we perceive is the color most absorbed? If this is true, then can we not say that if we simply invert a color (or image) then we would find the ideal color of light for that particular thing?

For instance, the opposite of skin color (#c29168) is blue (#3d6e97).

The opposite of green, such as grass (#738c62), would be a magenta (#957799).

Is this correct?
Sumpfkraut wrote on 2011-09-04 05:12

Actually leafs are green because of dyestuffs.
Kueh wrote on 2011-09-04 10:27

So, simple answer?

Basically, is what you're saying that the opposite of the color we perceive is the color most absorbed? If this is true, then can we not say that if we simply invert a color (or image) then we would find the ideal color of light for that particular thing?

For instance, the opposite of skin color (#c29168) is blue (#3d6e97).

The opposite of green, such as grass (#738c62), would be a magenta (#957799).

Is this correct?

Mostly. It depends on what inversion technique you use, but as long as you're inverting them on the color wheel, there should be plenty of room for error.

This is because plants don't contain one kind of photopigment (the light absorbing chemical.) Most have at least three, but others can have 5, or even 8 or more, and might have different compositions in different areas of the plant. The reason earth plant leaves tend to be green is that green is the most abundant photopigment. Most plants have at least three, with the most common being Alpha Chlorophyll, which absorbs mostly red-infrared and violet-ultraviolet, and Beta Chlorophyll, which absorbs yellow-red and violet-blue. Since Sol's light is most intense in and around the yellow to orange spectrum, these two are probably the most effective of all the natural photopigments. Thus, they are the most abundant.

However, there ARE pigments which absorb green (the carotene from carrots is one, and is found in most of the broad leafed trees you see.) As you know, carotene is orange, and every autumn, trees reabsorb the more valuable chlorophylls to use in next year's leaves. The carotenes are less of a priority, and get left behind, leaving stark displays of orange. Different trees use different combinations of secondary photopigments, so their autumnal leaves may be yellow or red.

So, answer the original question, it might be blue, but it could also do just fine being a color relatively close to blue. Keep in mind that even our earth plants aren't perfect absorbers of the spectrum, and something like 40-60% of the light is wasted. Also, I would expect there to be a large number of non-flesh colored plants. For example, a very high number of ocean plants are not green, because light is filtered by the water, and so green leaves wouldn't be the best to go with. Many sea-weeds are orange or red, or even light--almost yellow--greens.

In other words, there isn't just one color that'd be the best. But you could say blue would be a very good approximation.

Also, I'm not a botanist, just a biologist. And I also assumed you meant flora in the first post.
TA wrote on 2011-09-04 13:04

Yeah, I meant flora.

My knowledge of plants is....... rather lacking.