Do white flowers contain any pigment? Give reasons.
No, white flowers do not contain any pigment.
The plastids present in white flowers lack pigments and are thus colourless. These colourless plastids are called leucoplasts (in Greek, leukos means white). Unlike chromoplasts, which contain pigments that give bright colours to flowers and fruits, leucoplasts do not have any pigments. Instead, they function to store food materials such as starch, oils, or proteins. Therefore, the white appearance of these flowers is due to the absence of pigments rather than the presence of a white pigment.
Explanation
The textbook explains that while chromoplasts contain pigments giving bright colours to flowers, some plastids lack pigments entirely and are colourless. These are called leucoplasts. Since leucoplasts lack pigments, white flowers do not contain any pigment.