A while back, my teacher asked me to use 丰富多彩 ("richly colorful") in a sentence, but it wasn't received particularly well. The relevant part in my writing was
...丰富多彩地环境
and she said 各种颜色 was more appropriate here. (And it should be 的 instead of 地.) I'm still quite uncomfortable with this term, particularly since it's an idiom. I'm confused about both when it's suitable to use, and the surrounding grammar patterns.
Question: What kinds of things can be described as 丰富多彩, and how do I describe them?
My impression from examples online is this it's not to be used to literally mean colorful: