• Question: Why are wild flowers different colours, not all, lets say, blue?

    Asked by wizzyg12 to Claire, Matt, Sam on 28 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 28 Jun 2013:

      Flowers are coloured to attract insects that help pollenate them, i.e. transferring pollen between plants and helping them reproduce.

      I can’t find any good chemistry online for explaining how the colour in flowers works, but basically, it’s pigments in the cells in the petals. You can change the colour of flowers by adding food dye to the water they’re in – they suck up the food dye and their petals change colour! Even white flowers like daisies are in fact brightly coloured – they reflect ultraviolet light, which insects can see.

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 28 Jun 2013:

      I guess it’s sort of like why we have different hair colours – different amounts of pigment in the petals produces different colour.

      We use our hair to make us look more attractive, and it’s the same for flowers – it probably turns out that the colour they are is the colour that is most likely to attract whatever insect they want to pollinate it

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