While out in nature, you are undoubtedly going to see living things of many different colors. Depending on where you are in the world, some colors are more common than others.

These colors aren’t just random though. Evolution through natural selection has driven every plant, animal, and other living thing to have the color scheme that has allowed it to survive all this time.

The most common color in nature is green. Most plants have green leaves because they use photosynthesis to create energy from sunlight. Light comes in many different wavelengths, each of which has a different amount of energy.

Interestingly, while green is the color of most plants, it is actually the wavelength that they do not use for energy. Green is in the middle of the light spectrum, and that is the wavelength that plants generally reflect back out, which is how they get their color. The plants absorb most of the red light wavelengths and some of the blue.

Absorbing both the red and blue wavelengths means that the plants can get energy efficiently throughout most of the day, and as can be seen by looking out at a forest, it is very effective.

Not all living things absorb sunlight for energy though, so what makes them various different colors? Most of the time, it will be one of two things.

Camouflage to hide or bright colors to stand out to a potential mate.

The red, orange, and yellow colors that many animals come in can help them to blend in with dry grasses, sand, and other things out in nature. This is especially important when you consider that the eyesight of different animals picks up colors differently. A tiger might seem like an easy to spot orange creature to us, but when in the grasses on the savannah, they are nearly invisible to antelope and other prey animals.

On the opposite end of things, a peacock is made of many different colors so that it stands out almost no matter where it goes. They evolved this way primarily to attract mates, but their large feathers also make them appear much bigger than they are, so predators are less likely to attack.

All of this begs the question, what is the least common color in nature?

Many people suspect that it is blue, and that is not a bad guess. Blue light is a short wavelength and high frequency, which means it has lots of energy. Most pigments in nature will absorb it, so the blue color doesn’t get reflected. From an evolutionary point of view, it is difficult to make blue, which is why other than a few tropical birds, some frogs, and a handful of other creatures, you just don’t see it in nature very often.

The correct answer to the question, however, is not blue. It is violet.

Violet, which is distinct from purple on the light spectrum, is the rarest color in nature. For an organism to be violate there has to be a very good reason because that wavelength has so much energy, it shouldn’t be wasted.

Even within human culture, the color violet has been quite rare because it was so hard to find in nature. Anyone who could wear violet was very important in society because it was so hard to find. Of course, today we use synthetic dyes and chemicals that make violet much easier to make.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.