Question: How do flowers have diffrent colours

Sive Finlay answered on 17 Nov 2013:

Hey,
Flowers have different colours because they produce different coloured pigments in their cells. They inherit a genetic code from their parent plants which determine what type of coloured pigment they will produce – just like we inherit the genes for particular eye or hair colour. Each pigment has a different molecular structure which means that they reflect particular wavelengths of light so we see the flowers as different colours. Many flowers also produce colours and patterns which we can’t see because they rely on pigments which are sensitive to UV light which can be seen by birds and some insects.
The reason why flowers are coloured in general is to attract birds and insects to come and act as pollinators or seed dipsersers to help the flowers reproduce. Plants which rely on wind for pollination tend to have dull flowers because they don’t need to attract any visitors.
Sive