How Nature Speaks in Colour and How the Body Still Understands

Colour is not merely decorative; it is information. At its simplest, colour is a wave travelling through space. The visible spectrum sits within the electromagnetic field with wavelengths ranging from around 380 to 740 nanometres. The human eye can distinguish close to ten million colours and the plant world offers them in breathtaking range and subtlety. Sunlight fractured into its rainbow components determines the colouring of leaves, roots, bark, berries, flowers, fungi and seeds.

Goethe devoted much of his life to studying colour and perception. He observed that colour is never fixed. Light intensity distance angle of view and the inner state of the observer all shape how colour appears. We are not passive viewers, we participate in colour. Humans are born with limited colour vision that develops rapidly in the first months of life. Long before we have words we categorise colour instinctively. The nervous system responds before language arrives. Colour reaches us emotionally first and intellectually second, which is why it remains such a powerful influence throughout life.

“Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.” Saint Augustine

The Colours of Nature

Before synthetic dyes transformed the modern world, humans turned to plants to colour their lives. Pigments were drawn from roots, berries, bark, leaves, wood, fungi and lichens. The herbaceous perennial plant madder (Rubia tinctorum) yielded deep reds. Indigo and woad offered blues. Saffron, goldenrod and weld lit the world with yellow. Colour was inseparable from medicine ritual and survival.

Almost every colour can be extracted from plants except their native green. Chlorophyll resists capture. This absence is striking. Green seems to belong to the living landscape rather than the dye pot. It suggests that colour in Nature serves purposes far beyond ornament. It guides behaviour, conveys readiness and signals relationship. Modern psychology confirms what traditional cultures always knew. Colour shapes mood, memory, appetite and perception. Emotional states act as filters that colour experience quite literally. We respond to colour physiologically gravitating toward certain tones while feeling unsettled by others. Colour speaks directly to the body.

Green Is the Great Regulator

Among all the colours in Nature green is the most dominant. It is the foundation of the plant kingdom the backdrop of every landscape and the hue that embodies fertility renewal and life itself. Green is the colour of photosynthesis the process that feeds nearly all life on Earth. It is also associated across many traditions with the heart centre. Whether symbolic or biological the correspondence is striking.

Time spent among green landscapes has measurable effects on human physiology. Exposure to forests fields and gardens lowers stress hormones supports nervous system balance and improves focus and emotional regulation. After hours under artificial light and glowing screens a walk among trees recalibrates the senses almost immediately. Breathing slows, muscles soften and perspective widens. The body remembers how to settle. To work with green herbs is to step back into Nature’s original intelligence and let the living world retune the body, steady the heart and remind us how to belong again.

“Green is the prime colour of the world and that from which its loveliness arises.”
Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Colour Is About Feeling

Plant colours signal changes in season, food, ripeness and life stage. Leaves shift colour when photosynthesis slows and energy retreats into root and seed. Our eyes are exquisitely sensitive to these changes and our emotions respond to the messages they carry. Colour links us to nature’s unspoken language. In herbalism colour has long been recognised as a form of signature. Not as rigid doctrine but as guiding intelligence.

Plant pigments are biologically active compounds. Flavonoids, carotenoids anthocyanins, chlorophylls and polyphenols protect plants from UV damage oxidation and predation. In the human body these same compounds reduce inflammation, support circulation, modulate immunity and protect cells. Indeed, colour carries function.

Bees see ultraviolet patterns on flowers invisible to humans that guide them directly to nectar. Birds are drawn to red and orange fruits rich in sugars that fuel migration and ensure seed dispersal. Many mammals instinctively avoid intensely bright colours that signal bitterness or toxicity. Humans evolved within this same visual language. Colour once helped our ancestors identify nourishment, medicine and danger and the body still remembers.

The Healing Signatures of Plant Colour

Plants wear their medicine openly; their colours are not accidental. They are biological signals shaped by evolution and refined by relationship with pollinators, animals and humans. The eye recognises what the body needs long before the mind understands why. In herbalism colour has always been a guide, a symbolic language spoken through leaf and root, petal and berry.

Deep Green: The Builders and Purifiers
Green is the colour of chlorophyll and mineral wealth. It signals nourishment, regeneration and deep cleansing. Nettle, parsley, dandelion leaf, wheatgrass, barley grass, alfalfa, horsetail and comfrey all carry this living green signature. These plants build blood, strengthen connective tissue, remineralise bones and support liver and kidney function. Chlorophyll closely mirrors haemoglobin in structure, which explains its affinity for blood building detoxification and cellular repair. Green plants are the architects of vitality; they restore what modern life depletes. Animals instinctively graze on fresh green growth after illness or winter scarcity. Humans do the same when the body craves renewal - the colour itself calls us back to life.

White: The Restorers and Rebuilders
White roots and pale plants speak of structure, repair and resilience.

Solomon’s seal, marshmallow, root slippery elm, comfrey root and maitake reflect this signature. These remedies restore joint integrity, rebuild connective tissue, soothe mucous membranes and strengthen the skeletal framework. They are deeply moistening, grounding and regenerative. In Nature pale roots grow in darkness yet carry immense power and their colour reminds us that healing often happens beneath the surface.

Blue and Soft Violet: The Nervous System Healers
Blue is rare in Nature, which makes it precious and when it appears, it signals calm, protection and restoration of the mind. Skullcap, wood betony, vervain, passionflower, chamomile and blue lotus all carry this signature. These herbs quieten neural overdrive, ease muscular tension, soothe emotional agitation and restore sleep rhythms. Chamomile’s essential oil turns deep sapphire blue during distillation due to chamazulene a powerful anti-inflammatory compound that emerges only when the plant is transformed into medicine. Bees navigate by blue and ultraviolet light; the colour guides them to nourishment. In the same way blue herbs guide humans back to stillness.

Red: The Circulators and Heart Medicines
Red speaks of warmth movement and life force. Hawthorn berry, rose hip, hibiscus, red clover, goji berry, cayenne, beetroot and St John’s Wort all carry this pulse. These plants strengthen the heart, move stagnant blood, warm cold limbs, uplift mood and protect cardiovascular health. Red fruits attract birds whose digestion disperses seeds far and wide. Nature uses colour to ensure survival and humans respond with the same instinct when drawn to crimson berries in hedgerows and forests. Red is the colour of courage vitality and emotional fire.

Yellow and Orange: The Digestive Alchemists
These colours belong to the sun and to metabolism. Turmeric, ginger, calendula, dandelion root, yarrow, lemon peel, orange peel and chamomile radiate this golden signature. They stimulate bile flow, awaken digestion, clear stagnation and support liver detoxification. Their pigments come largely from carotenoids that are compounds essential for immune resilience, hormone balance and cellular renewal. In nature yellow attracts pollinators and in the body it awakens the digestive fire.

Purple and Indigo: The Deep Cleansers and Protectors
Purple speaks of mystery, transformation and deep cellular protection.

Elderberry, blueberry, blackberry, beetroot, burdock, reishi, chaga, maitake and lion’s mane all carry this indigo code. These plants strengthen immunity, protect DNA, cool inflammation, support lymphatic movement and nourish the brain and nervous system. Birds are irresistibly drawn to purple berries ensuring seed dispersal across vast distances. Nature uses colour to weave continuity and humans use it to restore resilience. Purple reminds us that healing is both biochemical and sacred.

The Rainbow Thread

Many healing traditions map colour onto the human energy system through the chakras. Each centre corresponds to a frequency of experience from grounding and survival to expression, intuition and transcendence. Plants mirror this spectrum. Roots, leaves, flowers and fruits offer not only chemistry but also resonance. Working consciously with colour through food, herbs landscapes and ritual reconnects us with a form of literacy older than writing. When we engage with plant colour we enter a subtle conversation with Nature. A conversation that has always been there just waiting for our attention. Colour is not just something we see, but also something we feel, something that shapes us and something that heals.

“Nature always wears the colours of the Spirit.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson