Blue is a very prominent colour on earth. 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.

Less than one in ten plants have blue flowers, and it isn't common in animals, either. 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.

One reason the color blue is difficult to find in nature is that there are no blue-pigmented animals. Another reason is that plants use a red pigment called anthocyanin to produce the color blue.