blue hue minority

by Tamara
(Atlanta Ga)

Why are there so few blue flowers? Is it something to do with chlorophyl in the plants?

Doug says that chlorophyll determines the leaf colour (green) and has nothing to do with flower color.

There are (at a quick count) about 50 species available for our gardens with blue flowers and somewhere around 200 (likely more) varieties of those species. So that's a goodly amount of plants to collect.

Why not blue? I suspect it depends on the kinds of pollinators that existed in the native ranges of the plants. If the plant is insect-pollinated, blue might be hard to see compared to vivid colors around it that are more attractive. Given that insects tend to see in the ultra-violet ranges, white and yellow flowers are more visible. If the plant is wind-pollinated, then blue would survive better. I haven't looked at the background of the "why" before but that would be my best guess.

Of course there would also be the explanation that Mother Nature hates the color blue and prefers something else. Or that 200 varieties just isn't enough for most gardeners. Or...

:-)