flower white

flower cream

flower yellow

flower orange

flower red

flower pink

flower azure

flower lilac

flower mauve

flower purple

flower blue

flower indigo

flower beetroot

flower green

flower brown

flower black

flower bicolour

flower multicolour

The COLOUR refers to the colour of the petals of the flowers. For instance, the white petals in daisies are not strictly petals, but ray-florets. Thus it is these ray-florets to which the colour of the flower is referred and not the true flowers in the Daisy: the disc-florets of the inner yellow bit in the middle. So under this scheme, the colour of a Daisy comes under white, and not yellow. To help you, I have put examples of flowers alongside the colours. Or in the case of Tansy, which has no ray-florets and consists entirely of yellow disc-florets, then it comes under the yellow listing.

Some flowers, like Red Valerian, can be either red, or pink, or white, and thus appears in all three categories.

You should compare the colour of the flower with the colour of the colour square, rather than the description of the colour in words, which is open to mis-interpretation. This assumes, of course, that your computer monitor gives the same colour representation as does the one used to write this tome. This is not an un-reasonable assumption, the colours on several other computer/monitor combinations do seem roughly equivalent in the case of these particular colours.

If the same flower displays more than one colour, then it is listed in the bi-coloured or multi-coloured sections, and also gets listed under all the colours it exhibits.

Thus, in the case of scarlet pimpernel, which is red with a purple centre, it gets listed under red, purple and bi-coloured.

There is also a (rarer) blue-flowered form of Scarlet Pimpernel, so Scarlet Pimpernel also occurs in the blue list.

In cases where the bracts of a flower (those parts that look a bit like petals, but are behind and concentric with the flower) are colours other than green, and differ in colour to the colour of the petals but yet look like petals and are therefore contributing to the overall impression of colour of the flower, in these cases the flower colour is listed under both petal colour and bract colour. For instance, Marsh Cinquefoil, which has prominent beetroot-coloured bracts and almost inconspicuous dark blue flowers is listed under beetroot and blue.

There is a marked seasonal propensity for flowers that are coloured yellow in spring, and red in summer. This may have something to do with the differing kinds on pollinating insects that predominate in those seasons and which the flowers are trying to attract.

THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF COLOUR IN FLOWERS The colours in plants, apart from the green of chlorophyll, is governed by the following classes of compounds: The Flavenoids: anthocyanins, anthocyanidins, anthoxanthins, proanthocyanidins and tannins. The Flavins (Pteridines) The Betalains: betacyanins, betaxanthins. The Carotenoids: xanthophylls, carotenes and retinoids. Quinones and xanthones. Plus tetrapyrroles: allophycocyanin, phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, phycoerythrocyanin. [Some of these occur in cyanobacteria, etc, rather than plants (?)] Specific Anthocyanidins include: aurantinidin, cyanidin, delphinidin, europinidin, luteolinidin, pelargonidin, malvidin, peonidin, petunidin and rosinidin. See Plant Dyes