What is the scientific reason for the absence of black colored flowers in nature?

I am aware that flowers are a natural way to attract honey bees to the flower so as to provide the bee with nectar and also help the plant disperse pollen through the bee.Hence the bright coloring of the flower.However the absence of the black coloration amongst flowers was brought to my notice by a friend.I wish to know if there is a biological mechanism whereby a plant avoids production of black pigment.

What is the scientific reason for the absence of black colored flowers in nature?
have you ever seen black natural pigments???
Reply:Simple. Ultravoilet light.



Flowers not only attract pollinators with scent and color, but also with reflecting ultra-vilolet light in different patterns. Black absorbs all light...not good for attracting much.



And anything in nature that is looks black, is usually either dark blue or purple.
Reply:I think you answered your own question. Flowers are the colors that they are to attract the necessary birds and insects they require for reproduction. Insects and birds do not see in the same color spectrum as humans. No insect or bird would probably be attracted to true black therefore, no flowers evolved black petals.
Reply:never seen a dead flower?
Reply:well the color of any thing is due to what light waves are being absorbed and reflected

in order for Photosynthesis to happen the color waves on the two ends of the spectrum are absorbed

may be that has something to do with it.
Reply:i think botanists have developed a black rose.
Reply:Black basically means ALL the color-wavelengths in the light were absorbed. Light is made of all the colors = white light.



Normally we see color like this:



You have a red ball. It looks red, because the paint on it did not absorb the red wavelengths of light. This red wavelength bounced right back into our eyes, so we say "red ball". If we want it to be a yellow ball, we need to paint it using a paint that contains chemicals that hold all wavelengths of light except yellow. That is how it will start being "yellow ball".



White light (made up of all the colors) hits a flower. The flower's bio-chemical makeup absorbs most of this light. It contains nothing however, to completely absorb the blue wavelength. The blue bits bounce back from the flower and hit our eyes. So we see it as a blue flower.



For a flower to be black, it would have to be made of a material mix that suck in all the wavelengths, leaving nothing to bounce back, so we would only see a black shape, where "nothing is", since no light is bouncing back to our eyes for that flower.



Such a material mix does not exist in nature. You will find very deep dark browns (where nearly all the light is sucked in, but by no means 100%) and so they look black-ish or Dark, but not pure Black.



Because of evolution, and the obvious advantages of being colorful rather than a black blob, most life-forms have evolved to have less of a light-sucking and more of a light-bouncing ability.



Which is good coz our gardens look pretty and butterflies can do their thing.
Reply:There was indeed black flower in the 14 - 16 centuries but black color has got the nature of observing heat so the flower burns down before it had a chance to spread it`s pollen thus becoming gradually instict. It is said that black rose still exist in densley populated forests where the sun can hardly penetrate in Africa and Latin America but in limited numbers.
Reply:There are black flowers. However, the colours we see flowers in are different from how a bee or insect sees them. Flowers look different in UV lights and often have cues for insects directing them into the flower which only the insects can see.



Put "uv flower" and look for images in your favourite search engine to see what they look like to insects.



FROM WIKI:

Some animals, including birds, reptiles, and insects such as bees, can see into the near ultraviolet. Many fruits, flowers, and seeds stand out more strongly from the background in ultraviolet wavelengths as compared to human color vision.
Reply:ever hear of black orchid...black dahlia..black roses
Reply:I have seen black flowers and heard of other black varieties.
Reply:Black is not a color but a shade.Two possible reasons are this.Black would most likely not atract pollen spreading animals thus haulting the flowers reproduction (plant are asexual and need a second party to reproduce).Black absorbs alot of heat radiation from sunlight and would probably harm the flower.I am not a botanist but this seems like a good guess to me.
Reply:See the flower which u saw is completely black bcoz it may have contained all the pigments whick leads to absorption of all the wavelengths of light which leads to blackening of the flower.
Reply:Just natural selection, there are some Easter lillies in bloom in my front yard that are a deep velvety purple black, but they are planted in the shade and are almost certainly not the result of natural selection.



I imagine the black color would absorb too much sunlight causing the flowers critical reproductive organs to be sterilized by being cooked. The darker the flower the more selected against it would be.



Freak mutations wouldn't last too long and gradual drift would be checked by the selective factor of overheating resulting in reduced average fertility.



There probably are flowers that are naturally black or that have large areas of near black coloration on them, but they are most likely limited to deep shade environs.



How many people plant flowers because they want a yard full of black blossoms? No I didn't plant ours, they were waiting in the ground when we moved in here in march.



A goth gardener might be an interesting visual, but really, after the hair and makeup who would have the time?
Reply:I am pretty sure there are some species of black flowers. There are some listed at this web site. While some are truly just deep purple, there do seem to be some that are truly black.

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