Light & Plants

Light is one of the most basic requirements for the existence of plants.
The energy source of plants is sugar. Instead of consuming it like almost any other life form, plants create their food in a process called Photosynthesis.
For this process to occur, the plant needs water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and sunlight which is the energy converted and stored in the sugar.

Types of Light

The white light contains various colors in it, just like demonstrated in a rainbow. Different colors of sunlight can be seen in different parts of the world and even different times of the day. Plants react differently to various colors of light, and actually use only some of them in Photosynthesis. The main colors of light used by plants are red and blue. High concentration of red light is manifested in yellow-orange light and with blue, white-bright blue light.

Light color is labeled as color temperature. The color temperature of a light source is determined by comparing its chromaticity with a theoretical, heated black-body radiator. The temperature (in Kelvin) at which the heated black-body radiator matches the color of the light source is that source’s color temperature.

See Also:
Light & Plants Part II - Hardcore Data
Artificial Light