WHY TREES ARE GREEN
Many times I have been asked the question, “Why are the leaves of plants green?” and for the benefit of others I will explain. The green colouring is due to a vital substance known as chlorophyll. The chlorophyll is composed of a number of
tiny green atoms so small that 2,000 of them placed in a row would make a line little more than half an inch in length.
This gives the green colour to the young bark of trees, to unripened wood, to grass and everything green in the vegetable world. Chlorophyll is developed only under the influence of sunlight. That is why celery earthed up carefully with soil is white while that unearthed is green, why potatoes go green when exposed to the light to shoot, why the outside leaves of the lettuce are dark-green and the heart creamy white.
The chlorophyll has other vital duties to perform. All life depneds on it. Without plants and their leaf cells of chlorophyll our air would lack the oxygen necessary for the higher forms of life.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNAK19271210.2.220.2
Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 28 (Supplement)
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180WHY TREES ARE GREEN Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 28 (Supplement)
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