The Chemistry Behind Flower Colours.
In the height of summer we see flowers of many colours and in many hues.
What is it that causes a flower to be red or yellow or blue? A question that has crossed my mind many times and to date I didn’t really know. So armed with my computer and a good search engine I decided to find the answer to this puzzle and came across some very interesting results.
Research on this subject has been carried out over the last 15 years in the USA by Robert J Grienbach working at the National Aboratum’s Floral and Nursery Plants research unit at Beltsville, Maryland. He has come up with some very interesting results. In his research he used petunias to show that specific shades of flower colours could be explained by the combined inheritance of plant pigments called flavonoids and the plants cell acidity or PH of the cell.
Three different pigments, chlorophyll, flavonoids and carotenoids, when mixed in different proportions give flowers their colour. Red orchids are created by mixing orange carotenoids with magenta flavonoids.
Chlorophyll, the pigment that gives a plant its green colour is located in small packets called chloroplasts.
The carotenoids, responsible for colours from yellow through to orange are also found in small packets called chromoplasts.
Flavonoids, unlike the previous two are located within the water storage area at the centre of the cell. They represent three quarters of each flower cell and cause the red to blue colours.
Flavonoids are divided into two groups, pigmented anthocyanins and colourless co-pigments. Griesbech goes on to say, ” While very little is known about the biochemistry of chlorophyll and carotenoids relating to flower colours. We have a lot of information about flavonoid chemistry and flower colour. Flavonoid research is 20 years ahead of carotenoid research”.
So once the bio chemistry of flower colour is known for a specific plant it will be possible to create an infinite range of custom coloured flowers using genetic engineering. The drawback is the cost of the research doing chemical analysis to create unique flower colours like blue roses.
Some excellent field guides for residents of and visitors to Britain.
Collins Complete Guide to British Wild Flowers: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species
Complete British Wild Flowers
Wild Flowers by Colour: The Easy Way to Flower Identification
The Wild Flower Key: British Isles and North West Europe
Wild Flowers (Pocket Nature)
Wild Flowers: An Easy Guide by Habitat and Colour
Wild Flowers of Britain and Europe (Black’s Nature Guides)
The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
Field Flora of the British Isles
Common Families of Flowering Plants
