purple [púrp’l]—a dark color formed by combining red and blue

What is your choice of color? Is it pink? Blue? Perhaps yellow or green? If you are a keen observer, a wide reader, or a little bit of a talker as I am, then you would notice that 99.999% of the population of the whole wide world is into this controversial color—purple. Obviously, I’m just exaggerating. But it’s true that a lot of people are really into purple. Are you one of them? Well, before you say something else, check out these purple facts!

Purple in Nature. Did you know that God created a lot of purple things around us? In plants, we have a common herb in the Eastern US ponds, the Purple Bladderwort. In New Hampshire, Purple Lilac is the state flower. In North America, a marsh plant with lance-shaped leaves is called Purple Loosestrife. In the Philippines, the eggplant is a common purple vegetable.

                In bird species, there’s the Purple Finch from the Finch Family, which has a dark red breast with a rasp-berry red head and is native to North America. From the Family Rallidae of the Order Gruiformes are the Purple Swamphen and the Purple Gallinule—both can be found in warm areas of Eurasia, in the Mediterranean countries east of Samoa islands, and in the cooler climate of New Zealand and nearby islands. In North America, the largest swallow is Purple Martin, although this bird is not actually purple (adult males are blue-black, while females and juveniles have gray foreheads and under parts). Finally, the Purple Grackles, birds having deep purple iridescent, plumage, are native to eastern North America.

Literary Purpleness.

                “I never saw a purple cow,

                  I never hope to see one;

                  but I can tell you anyhow,

                  I’d rather see than be one,”