Why is red such a prevalent color in fruit?

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Apples, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, some grapes, some pears, lychee’s, peaches and mangoes have some red hues in them, what is it about fruit and the color red?

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3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It is evolution. Red is more noticeable in a green background. It is to attract animals to eat them. Fruits have seeds in them and when an animal eats them, they would poop out the seeds and it would grow to another plant.

Anonymous 0 Comments

From an evolutionary standpoint, plants want their fruits and berries to be eaten by animals. The energy spent on creating all that tasty sugar pays off when seeds survive the animal’s digestion and get left in a pile of fertilizer, usually some distance away from the parent plant.

So, fruits and berries want to be seen by animals that might eat them in the same way that flowers want to be seen by bees and other pollinators. A bright, shiny, red apple will be seen easily among green leaves.

Additionally, bright colors are a sign of a healthy fruit (less likely to be diseased or infected), which entices animals even more.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are a ton of theories out there. It depends on a whole bunch of factors – the environment conditions, which animals eat it, if it’s been genetically modified/bred to have certain color characteristics, etc.

Some fruits are red to attract animals so that they can disperse the seeds after being eaten. Birds are hella into red, for example. That said, most animals don’t see things how we see them.

Some fruit/plants are able to limit sun damage by reflecting a specific UV wavelength which in turn may give the fruit a red color in visible light.