Black Flowers

[Nyboy]

This weekend at my favorite nursery I noticed for the first time black colored flowers. Both pansies and petunia had black flowers. I am sure they where very deep purple, but they look black. have you seen any other flowers in Black?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Lots

Carnations- King of the blacks (usually not sold as plants, but Thompson and Morgan used to sell seeds for it

Morning Glory- Black Knight, Knopia black (may have misspelled that one)

Sweet Pea- Black Knight

Tulips- many (Queen of Night and Black Parrot are common)

Bearded Iris-many

Salvia- Andean sage (salvia discolor) has black flowers and slivery foliage

Columbine

Fava bean (some)

There was also a wild plant I remember reading about in Natural History about ten years ago that is native to Mexico; a relative of gentian. That one is of note because unlike all of the above, which are indeed deep purple (or red, or blue) it really IS optically black under all spectra (since flowers are colored for insects, not us, many have colors that are beyond our ability to see, like far red, infrared and ultraviolet (for fun look at a picture of a daisy under UV)

 

[Nyboy]

I seen some you listed, but they don't really look Black more like dark purple. The 2 this weekend looked black.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well it does vary from type to type. It's all a matter of saturation, the stronger the purple pigment, the blacker the flower looks. There is technically no black flower because there is no flower pigment plants make that is black (even those visually black ones I mentioned are purple if you dilute the floral pigment enough in a lab)

Pansies are good at deep and dark (and while I have never seen them I imagine that means that somewhere out there are black violets) . Ditto petunias. And it probabably helps that both have super plastic floral genes which allows colors to just be stacked on top of each other, and also goes a long way to explaining how there can be such a diversity of colors and patterns (technically, pansies genes are so juggled up no one is really sure what species they should be considered, whether Viola tricolor, the species of heartsease (or as we know it in this country Johnny-Jump-up) is even still valid for the modern bred pansy. )

 

[Smart Red]

My black columbine does look pretty black next to blues and purples. I have seen the black petunias, however, and they definitely look black.

 

[ninnymary]

Isn't there a black rose?

Mary

 

[bobm]

I have 2 Black Lace elderberry bushes. Visually the leaves are actually a very deep purple and the flowers are a light pink.

 

[journey11]

Black Swan poppies and there's a black hollyhock too.

 

[Carol Dee]

I had the black holly hock. Sadly it is gone now.

 

[Nyboy]

Did it look black or dark purple ?