What's the rarest color on national flags?
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Make every day more interesting. Each day a surprising fact opens a world of fascinating information for you to explore. Did you know that….? 
| | Original photo by kbuconi/ Shutterstock |
| Purple is the rarest color on national flags. | If you want your flag to fit in, go with red, white, and blue — the three most popular colors found on the world's flags. If you want to go a more distinctive route, add a dash of purple, because only one national flag in the world sports this hue. That flag belongs to the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, and features the country's national bird, the purple-plumed sisserou parrot (Amazona imperialis). This endangered bird is one of the oldest Amazon parrot species in the world, and can only be found in the remote mountain forests of Dominica.
Eagle-eyed flag experts might note that the flags of both Nicaragua and El Salvador feature volcano-traversing rainbows, which (theoretically) contain the full spectrum of visible color. However, Dominica still wins out on a technicality. These two countries officially label the last shade of the rainbow on their flags as "violet" and "blue," respectively, and the color "purple" is a nonspectral color, meaning it isn't represented by a specific wavelength of light (and therefore not part of a rainbow). Instead, the color purple is a construction of our brain and the limitations of the cones in our eyes. So unless some country opts for a purple-centric redesign, the chromatic glory of the sisserou parrot will remain a flag favorite.
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 | | The word "purple" is Greek for "midnight." | | |
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| The word "purple" is Greek for "midnight." |  |  |
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| The study of flags is known as __. |  |
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 | Numbers Don't Lie |
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 | | Year Dominica gained its independence from Great Britain | | 1978 |
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| | | Percent of national flags that contain red, the most popular color | | 74 |
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| | Number of rivers in Dominica, an island less than 300 square miles | | 365 |
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| | | Wingspan (in inches) of the endangered Sisserou parrot | | 30 |
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 | Only one national flag in the world isn't a rectangle. |
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| Flags come in many different colors and a variety of designs, but most of them are rectangular. The flag of Nepal is a truly incredible departure, however. The double pennon-shaped flag, which looks like two differently sized triangles stacked on top of one another, represents both the Himalayan mountains as well as the country's two major religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. (The exact mathematical proportions of the triangles are actually enshrined in the country's constitution.) Just like the vast landscapes that fill the country, the Nepalese flag is certainly one of a kind. | | |
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posted by June Lesley at 5:43 AM
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