[planetpluta]

I think the rest of that sentence tries to explain the dismissal:

>> There are plants that don’t appear green, like the copper beech, because they contain pigments like carotenoids. But those pigments are not photosynthetic: They typically protect the plants like sunscreen, buffering against slow changes in their light exposure

The reason for non-green is not related to photosynthesis but some other process

[osigurdson]

This what I mean. The reason why some data points do not fit the hypothesis is thrown in rather casually, without any references.