Orange (colour) and absorb mostly greenish-blue light. (See also shades of orange). Other orange pigments include: The orange colour of carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, oranges, and many other fruits and vegetables comes from carotenes, a type of photosynthetic pigment. These pigments convert the light energy that the plants absorb from the sun into chemical energy for the plants' growth. The carotenes themselves take their name from the carrot. Autumn leaves also get their orange colour from carotenes. When the weather turns cold and production of green chlorophyll stops, the orange colour remains. Before the 18th century, carrots from Asia were usually purple,
Orange (colour) orange is named after the appearance of the ripe orange fruit. The word comes from the Old French "orange", from the old term for the fruit, "pomme d'orange". The French word, in turn, comes from the Italian "arancia", based on Arabic "nāranj", derived from the Sanskrit "naranga". The first recorded use of "orange" as a colour name in English was in 1512, in a will now filed with the Public Record Office. Prior to this word being introduced to the English-speaking world, "saffron" already existed in the English language. "Crog" also referred to the saffron colour, so that orange was