Rainbow Plants and Animals

And so I thought I was having a kindergarten, cartoon thought when I said to myself: What about rainbow trees? Then I looked it up and found there is such a thing as a rainbow tree.

In California, where I did most of my growing up we had a strong smelling tree that seemed to be shedding bark all the time. We were told it was a Eucalyptus tree and that it was from Australia. They where strong smelling trees that had an odor reminiscent of Vick's vapor run but the odor was definitely not Vick's.

Well it turns out that the rainbow trees are Eucalyptus trees that grow in Hawaii. When the bark peels different colored layers are revealed and thus you have your rainbow tree.

Few things in nature are more colorful than tropical birds. They are living rainbows.

There are times in nature when anything brightly colored is also deeply poisonous. Given the number of folks who have owned various varieties of tropical birds without keeling over and dying I do not think that the natural coloration is a warning to predictors in this case but rather an advertisement to mates and possible a challenge to rivals. Given how easy the birds are to see with these colors, you would think that their predators must be color blind.

If you look around the internet you can probably find someone who will sell you seeds for rainbow colored grapes.

While the grapes are ripening it is certainly possible to get a range of colors. However, in general, when all the grapes are ripe they will be one hue.

So don't let some make you think you are going to put ripe rainbow grapes on your dinner table. If you do so, some will be ripe and some will not be ripe. I don't think you guests are looking for that kind of culinary experience.

Certainly some of the smaller brightly colored sea creatures like snails are probably poisonous and their coloration is a warning.

For other denizens of the deep it depends. Some fish with iridescent scales may be harder for their prey to see from below.

For other brightly colored fish they may be advertising sexual maturity or telling rivals: You don't want any of this. Some believe that certain fish create a pecking or social order by the coloration.

I came across two kinds of painted grasshoppers. Though they are brightly colored and this causes some animals and even humans to avoid them, I found nothing to indicate that they are dangerously poisonous. Still, why practice bad habits. It is best to develop a tendency to avoid anything that is small and brightly colored because it can so often be bad news. So we will give these little fellows wide berth though they may mean us no harm.

If someone tries to sell you seeds for rainbow roses they are probably no more real than Jack's magic beans.

Rainbow roses themselves are real. What's not real is the notion that you can grow them from seed. Actually, you need to infuse a regular rose with some dye while it growing to get that rainbow effect.

To my knowledge, you cannot grow rainbow roses from rainbow rose seeds because there is no such thing.