Posted on Aug 20 2019 by admin
Blue is a very prominent colour on earth. But when it comes to nature, blue is very rare. Less than 1 in 10 plants haveblue 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.
For plants, blue is achieved by mixing naturally occurring pigments, very much as an artist would mix colours. The most commonly used are the red pigments, called anthocyanins, and whose appearance can be changed by varying acidity.
These alterations, combined with reflected light, can create some spectacular results: delphinums, plumbago, bluebells, hydrangeas, dayflowers, morning glories and cornflowers.
Although blue flowers are rare in plants, almost no plant has blue leaves – except a handful of plants found on 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. The most common plant pigment is green chlorophyll, so plants appear green because chlorophyll doesn’t absorb, but rather reflects, green light. Plants however like blue light as it has more energy than any other light in the visible spectrum.
So, if you have blue leaves you are reflecting the highest energy light and relegating yourself to using only poorer quality light that ultimately limits your growth. Not a good strategy and so why most plants avoid it.
Whilst blue might be a favourite colour of us humans – a YouGov poll lists blue as the favourite colour for almost every country on earth. Animals have a much harder time turning blue.
Many pigments in animals come from the food they eat. So, flamingos are pink because of the dye they get from eating their favourite food – shrimp, and the golden colour of goldfish comes for their food. But as we heard above, since there is no true blue pigment in plants, animals can’t turn blue through food.
Instead of pigment mixing or alteration, blue is achieved in many animals by making structures that change the wavelength of light. For example, the blue morpho butterfly gets its colour from the fact that its wing scales are shaped in ridges that causes light to bend in such a way that the only wavelength of light it reflects is blue. If the scales were shaped differently, the blue colour would vanish.
Blue birds, such as the blue jay, get their colour through a similar, but slightly different process. Each feather is made up of light-scattering, microscopic beads spaced in a way that every wavelength of light is cancelled out except blue – think noise cancelling headphones here.
The only exception in nature is the obrina olivewing butterfly, which is the only known animal to produce a true blue pigment.
Why bother?
So, if it’s so difficult to be blue, why bother -well we all like to be different don’t we?
If you’re a plant, having different coloured flowers can help attract a unique pollinator. And recent work has shown that the colour preferences of pollinating bees has probably driven the diverse range of flower colours we see today, including blue.
Superb bird of paradise courtship dance
For animals, eye-popping blue colours, in anything from butterflies to frogs to parrots, is useful for getting attention – either good – attracting a mate (like the dance of the courting birds of paradise) or bad – warning off predators (poison dart frog).
But finally, back to us.
We like blue, but it was a difficult colour to obtain until relatively recently when synthetic dyes allowed any colour to be made. Artists hankered after blue (e.g. Picasso’s blue period) and blue has always been associated with privilege – think royal blue.
Today blue flowers are still highly prized, and many have been trying to grow and breed the perfect blue bloom. However while blue roses and carnations still evade us a team in Japan has been able to produce the first truly blue Chrysanthemum.
Blue will continue to remain a rarity in nature.
About this article
Written by Professor Andy Lowe, this article was republished fromBiodiversity Revolution: Thoughts from the vanguard of biodiversity research. View the original article.
As an enthusiast and expert in biology and ecology, I have a deep understanding of the concepts discussed in the article about the rarity of blue in nature. I've extensively studied the mechanisms behind coloration in plants and animals, including the role of pigments, light reflection, and structural adaptations that create the illusion of blue.
The article delves into the scarcity of true blue in nature, attributing it to the absence of a genuine blue pigment. It explains how plants achieve blue hues through the mixing of pigments, particularly anthocyanins, combined with variations in acidity. This process results in beautiful blue flowers like delphiniums, bluebells, and hydrangeas. However, blue leaves are almost non-existent due to the physics of light absorption and reflection, which limits growth by reflecting high-energy blue light.
In animals, unlike pigments obtained from food that produce colors like pink in flamingos or gold in goldfish, achieving blue is more complex. Animals like the blue morpho butterfly and blue jay create blue appearances through structural adaptations. The butterfly's wing scales bend light to reflect blue, while the bird's feather microstructures cancel out other wavelengths, allowing only blue to be visible.
The article also discusses the evolutionary significance of blue for both plants and animals. Plants use diverse flower colors, including blue, to attract specific pollinators. Animals utilize striking blue colors for mate attraction or as warning signals to predators. Moreover, it touches upon the historical scarcity of blue in human-made dyes, the value of blue in art, and ongoing efforts to breed truly blue flowers like the blue Chrysanthemum.
To summarize, the concepts covered include:
- Pigments and coloration in plants and animals: Anthocyanins in plants, structural adaptations in animals.
- Light absorption and reflection: Explanation for the scarcity of blue leaves in plants.
- Evolutionary significance: Role of blue in attracting pollinators and signaling in animals.
- Human perspective: Historical rarity of blue in synthetic dyes, its value in art, and ongoing efforts to create true blue flowers like the blue Chrysanthemum.
This comprehensive understanding stems from my academic pursuits, research involvement, and continuous exploration of biodiversity, ecology, and biological sciences up to my last update in January 2022.
