Plants are green specifically because the red and blue wavelengths of light are useful for breaking specific chemical bonds necessary for photosynthesis and as such are readily absorbed by the plant. The plant makes efficient use of the energy provided by only absorbing the wavelengths necessary for its processes. However, plants still absorb 90% of green light and green light holds the highest proportion of the energy radiated by the sun.
To be more clear, green light has too much energy. When plants absorb light it first enters a protein mesh containing pigments such as chlorophyll that function like an antenna or receiver for a range of wavelengths. The pigments then transfer the energy to a “reaction center” where it turns this electromagnetic energy into chemical energy (photosynthesis). This process is exceedingly efficient; almost all of the absorbed energy is converted into electrons the plants can use. However, this protein mesh antenna is not solid and is constantly moving. These movements affect how energy is absorbed and how it flows through the pigments. Think of diffraction in water. Fluctuation in the intensity of light can create noise in this process; a quick brush of shade or sudden increase of light intensity can decrease the efficiency of photosynthesis. For plants and really everything that lives, a steady input and output of energy is desirable. Not enough electrons making it to the reaction center causes energy failure while too much will cause general overcharging effects that can damage tissue. When the noise of this system fluctuates it makes it difficult for the plant to self regulate it’s energy flow and could cause the plant to kill it’s own tissue or essentially starve. So essentially, while absorbing all green light would provide the plant with more energy, it’s not capable of handling this energy so plants evolved to limit their intake of green light.
However, this is not to say that green lights ability to efficiently evaporate water is not a factor in this evolutionary development, hell it’s probable that these two things are heavily related. Green light might evaporate water so well because of some combination of its relatively high energy mixed with the size of its wavelength interacting with the hydrogen bonds between water molecules in a more efficient manner than other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
source for those interested
mozz@mbin.grits.dev 6 months ago
Fun fact: There's a pretty compelling case to be made that early photosynthesizing organisms were purple instead of green, so that for about half a billion years the earth was purple and blue like a cyberpunk street scene.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 6 months ago
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Oh Wikipedia, pease never change.
Liz@midwest.social 6 months ago
Wikipedia can be weird sometimes. I’m trying to get an article approved and every time I re-submit it gets denied for different reasons.
Jimbo@yiffit.net 6 months ago
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CosmicSploogeDrizzle@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This is awesome! I’ve never heard of this before!
Xanis@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Somewhere out in the infinitely expanding Universe is a Psychlo very disappointed by what he just read.