Have you ever wondered why different kinds of fruit have so many colors? According to Lu Wei from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, fruit colors actually come from their differentpigments. These pigments appear in different amounts (数量), depending on the fruit's environment. This causes the fruit to turn a certain color.
To find out how environment influences fruit colors, Chinese scientists studied more than 280 different fruit colors. They found that red fruits are likely to grow in cooler places. You can find them growing in many places around the world instead of just in one place. Blue and purple fruits mostly grow in warmer places. They grow a lot in just one specific (特定的) area. The closer the fruit is to the equator (赤道), the darker its color will be.
Animals also have an influence on the development of fruit colors. Animals eat fruit and drop the seeds (种子)in other places later. This helps the fruit spread and grow in different places. Therefore, in order to attract (吸引) animals, some fruits develop colors that are easy to see. However, animals see colors in a different way. Fruit needs to develop colors that are suited to animals' visual (视觉的)abilities. For example, birds can see red more easily than humans can. So there tends to be more red fruit in areas where birds live.
