Answer 1:
Good question. The short answer is yes. The
long answer is a little complicated. Plant color
comes from pigments, which the plant makes to
collect light for photosynthesis.
In case you haven’t studied photosynthesis yet,
that’s the way plants take matter—carbon dioxide
and water—then use energy from light to make
sugar. Oxygen is a waste product.
The color of plants can give important clues
about their health. A healthy plant can make
plenty of pigments, like chlorophyll. Pigments
are “expensive” for the plant to make, though. It
takes energy and raw materials. So plants that
are not doing well may make fewer pigments or stop
making the most expensive pigments. When the
roots are damaged so that they can’t absorb
nutrients from the soil, or the soil is low in
nutrients or has the wrong pH, plants stop making
pigments. Plants that don’t get enough water make
less chlorophyll too. People who manage food
crops or forests use special techniques for
measuring the color of plants in order to tell how
healthy they are. A plant can be in bad shape by
the time it would look different to a person not
using special tools.
If you are interested in doing a project on
this, you might want to contact your local county
extension service. These are offices that help
connect university researchers with local people
who need help with plant and animal issues. If
they have someone using pigment colors to study
the health of grass or other plants, they may be
able to help.
If you are interested in the health of plants,
you may want to study botany, agricultural
science, or plant ecology.
Thanks for asking,
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