• Question: why is grass green if soil is brown?

    Asked by anon-186803 to Danny, Verity, Raquel, Catherine, Andy on 13 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-186549.
    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Grass is green as it contains a thing called chlorophyll. This allows plant life like grass so get energy from the sun. This process is called photosynthesis. Chlorophyll is green due to its structure. It reflects green light while absorbing the other colours and so looks green to us.

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Grass is green because it is a photosynthesising plant! It’s green for the same reason that leaves are green, just as Danny has said.
      Soil is brown because there’s a lot of carbon matter in it, from decomposing animals and plants (which are made of carbon). Carbon compounds tend to absorb most colours of light, so they only reflect brown light, which is what we see.
      Also, not all soil is brown! In different parts of the world, it might be red for example if it has more iron in the soil

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