Think of your favorite color and if you’re like most people around the world, there’s a good chance it’s some shade of blue. The vast blue sky and the many blue clothes out there may trick you into thinking this color is common in the natural world but, think again. When was the last time you glimpsed a blue petal, insect or bird? They’re out there, but not many.
Blue is one of the rarest of colors in nature. Even the few animals and plants that appear blue don’t actually contain the color. These vibrant blue organisms have developed some unique features that use the physics of light.
Waves and cones
First, here’s a reminder of why we see blue or any other color.
All light is a form of electromagnetic energy, waves that can travel through a vacuum. The waves fall on a spectrum, with some having longer or shorter wavelengths. X-rays, microwaves and radio waves are all part of the spectrum, each with their own wavelength. There’s only one sliver of the spectrum that we can see, and that’s the visible light spectrum.
Zoom into the light energy and here each color also has its own wavelength. Reds and yellows have relatively long wavelengths, blues and violets have the shortest.
The color we see is the wavelength that reflects most from that object. Take a yellow sunflower, for example. It absorbs the blue, red and other color energy waves then reflects back wavelengths that appear yellow. The color receptors in our eyes then translate the flower’s wavelength into its color and send that to our brain.
Ok, back to blue.
Blue is a tough color to spot in nature because there is no naturally occurring blue compound to color things blue. This is why blue rocks and minerals are so rare and why it was so pricey back when the Egyptians began mining the vibrant blue lapis lazuli mineral thousands of years ago.
Plants are green because of the compound chlorophyll, which has a green pigment. The bright orange of carrots stems from its carotene compounds. And these pigments can go up the food chain. If you were to eat a lot – a whole lot – of carrots, your skin could take on an orange tinge.
Some animals actually rely upon their dinner for their colors. Flamingoes are born with grey feathers, for example, that gradually shift into colorful pinks from the compounds in their meals. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/for-some-species-you-really-are-what-you-eat-40747423/
But there are shiny blue butterflies, peaco*cks, berries and a few other animals with rich blue hues. There’s even a bright blue tarantula. Perhaps you are thinking blueberries are everywhere and they are quite common. They are technically deep purple, not blue, and their color comes from the purple anthocyanin compound.
Blue Taruntula aka Poecilotheria_metallica
the Blue Morpho butterfly
So how do the true blue plants, animals, and minerals get their color if there is no actual blue compound? It’s all in how these organisms are built (the external structure and for now, extend that meaning of external structure to what you can visibly see of rocks and minerals) and how light bounces off these structures – it’s actually called structural color. Light hits special structures on the cell, wing or other part of an organism that cause the wavelengths to bounce a certain way – in the very short wavelength way that results in the color blue. There are several ways this can happen and scientists are studying these blue plants and animals to understand it… https://www.gotscience.org/2016/11/nature-uses-physics-create-color-blue/
Perhaps that is why blue is so popular in the people world, because it is so rare in nature. But researchers have found ways to develop the color synthetically. So next time you put on your favorite blue jeans or Julianna Rae pajamas, you’ll have even more to appreciate!
Let us know what colors make you sing and if there are other colors you would like us to research!
FAQs
Blue is a tough color to spot in nature because there is no naturally occurring blue compound to color things blue. This is why blue rocks and minerals are so rare and why it was so pricey back when the Egyptians began mining the vibrant blue lapis lazuli mineral thousands of years ago.
Why is blue the rarest color in nature? ›
The color blue that is found in foods, plants, and animals lacks a chemical compound that makes them blue, which makes the natural blue pigment so rare. The majority of natural blue colors found in food are deep purple pigments derived from the purple compound “anthocyanin“.
What is the rarest color in Earth? ›
Lapis lazuli is a deep-blue, metamorphic rock that has been prized for its intense pigment and historical significance. Lapis lazuli is listed as the rarest colour in the world composed mainly of the minerals lazurite, pyrite, and calcite, lapis lazuli.
What is the true blue color in nature? ›
The colour blue is rarely found in nature because only a few organisms can create the true-blue pigment. The only species of animal known to produce the true-blue pigment is the Obrina Olivewing butterfly. Blue is a very prominent and beautiful colour on planet Earth. Our sky and oceans are all blue!
What is blue scientifically? ›
blue, in physics, light in the wavelength range of 450–495 nanometres in the visible spectrum. After violet, blue is the spectral region with the shortest wavelengths discernible to the human eye.
What is the most forgotten color? ›
Quercitron yellow takes the crown as the most forgotten color. This is partly due to its two confusing names—what we now know as quercitron yellow used to be known simply as quercitron or more commonly as “Dutch Pink.” Umm, what?
What is the rarest color of eyes? ›
Gray: The Rarest Eye Color
With this change, gray now tops the list as the rarest eye color. Gray eyes may contain just enough melanin in the front layer to dim the blue wavelengths of light that are reflected back by the tissue of the eye. Dark gray eyes have a bit more melanin in the front layer than pale gray eyes.
What is the least liked color? ›
America's least desired colors for home decoration: orange and pink. This is the result of a survey of more than 1,500 consumers by Modsy, an online interior design service. More than a third of survey respondents ranked these two colors as their least favorite, Apartment Therapy reports on the findings.
What color is not found in nature? ›
One reason is that true blue colours or pigments simply don't exist in nature, and plants and animals have to perform tricks to appear blue, according to the University of Adelaide. Take blue jays for example, which only appear blue due to the structure of their feathers, which distort the reflection of light.
Is blue actually rare in nature? ›
But when it comes to nature, blue is very rare. Less than 1 in 10 plants have blue flowers and far fewer animals are blue. So why is that? Part of the reason is that there isn't really a true blue colour or pigment in nature and both plants and animals have to perform tricks of the light to appear blue.
The water is in fact not colorless; even pure water is not colorless, but has a slight blue tint to it, best seen when looking through a long column of water. The blueness in water is not caused by the scattering of light, which is responsible for the sky being blue.
Is blue scientifically calming? ›
Peaceful, calm and gentle, blue has tremendous power to manage stress. It's a very soothing color that helps calm your mind, slow down your heart rate, lower your blood pressure and reduce anxiety. Blue is believed to have a cooling and astringent effect.
What does psychology say about the color blue? ›
The Psychology of Blue
Blue calls to mind feelings of calmness and relaxation. 3 It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, and orderly. Blue is seen as a sign of stability and reliability. Businesses that want to project an image of security often utilize blue in their advertising and marketing efforts.
What does blue mean spiritually? ›
Yes, blue can represent healing (i.e., healing waters), as well as serenity, calm, and truth. However, it can also represent sadness and grief, so it depends on things like shade, context, and your own personal associations with the color.
Why is blue elusive in nature? ›
"Although blue flowers are rare in plants, almost no plant has blue leaves – except a handful of pladelphiniumson the floor of tropical rainforests. The main reason for this has to do with the physics of light. Pigments appear the colour of the light they don't absorb, but instead reflect.
What is unique about the color blue? ›
Blue calls to mind feelings of calmness and relaxation. 3 It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, and orderly. Blue is seen as a sign of stability and reliability. Businesses that want to project an image of security often utilize blue in their advertising and marketing efforts.
What is the rarest blue ever? ›
The Rarest Blue tells the incredible story of tekhelet, the elusive sky-blue color mentioned throughout the Bible. Minoans discovered it; Phoenicians stole it; Roman emperors revered it; and Jews — obeying a commandment to affix a thread of it to their garments — risked their lives for it.
Why are there no blue mammals? ›
The most mechanistic answer then is that we mammals mostly use brown, black and red pigments (melanins) and lack both colorful pigments and sophisticated mechanisms to produce the structural colors that underlie many green, blue and violet shades in butterflies, beetles and birds.
