Monday, May 31, 2010

Trivial Tuesdays - Black as night

For this week's post, I must admit I cheated; it wasn't a random pick, you'll see why.

Q.8
What colour is produced by the complete absorption of light rays?
...

...


A.8
Black

Great Job! This might have been an easy question this week but I won't be discussing colour wheels or even colour perception, nope, I'll be introducing you to some mysterious black flowers. This fascination of mine began with talk of a black rose, not a tinted rose, but a genuine black rose.
 via

A black rose just has a certain je ne sais quoi about it that makes me dream. It may however just be a dream since that darkest variety known (or that I have managed to find a latin name to) is called the "Louis XIV" and it's more of a dark crimson red.
Oh don't get me wrong it's beautiful, but it's not really black. Which brings about the question, are there really black plants? Well, keep scrolling to find out.

If you read my post about orchid's a while back (click here), you know now that orchids are the most diverse flowering plant family in the world, surely, if a black flower exists, it will be found within this group.

You be the judge.

I selected these two mainly for the awesomeness of their name. I just had to share.

       Devil's Dracula Orchid                           Vampire's Dracula Orchid
     Dracula diabola                                       Dracula vampira
    via                                                                                      via

Right? Who says science is boring. Speaking of Vampires and scientific names, have I ever mentioned the amazing Vampire Squid from Hell - Vampyrotheutis? No? Well, let me digress and post a link.


Yep it's amazing! But since it's not black or a plant, I'll stop at that.

Out of the orchids now (although they do yield other dark flowers) but continuing with the vampire theme. I'd like to introduce the Bat Flower. I recently discovered it at the Botanical Gardens and fell in love.

  Bat Flower
Tacca chantieri
via                                                                                                                    via

Aren't they cute? The seed pods in the picture to the right really look like little sleeping bats. It is also called Cat's Whiskers (for obvious reasons) and Devil's Flower and is originally from South Est Asia.

The next flower is particularly dark and is one of the closest I have found to a true black (it does however vary from flower to flower even within the same plant. 


Black Hollyhock  
Alcea Rosea 'Nigra'

And then there is the last one, so cute and so dark I kept it for last. 


Sorbet Black Delight Viola
Viola
via via

Do you have dark or even black flowers in you backyard?

Have you ever received a Black Rose or any other Black flower as a gift?
I'd love to know for what occasion.

Have a great week!
Take care!

9 comments:

  1. the bat flowers aren't cute, they are tough and wicked looking.great post though :) i love you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have black calla lilies - they really are a very dark purple, but look black even in good light. They are absolutely stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! You are right! Thank you Anonymous reader. An Update for {Trivial Tuesdays} - Black as night is now available.

    http://emiliedwolf.blogspot.com/2010/08/trivial-tuesdays-update-black-as-night.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're absolutely right to assume there are black orchids.The ones on preview here are lovely and dark but not as black as some orchids come. My favorites: Dracula roezlii and of course Fredclarkeara After Dark 'Feuerbach' aka the Nightmare before Christmas;)If you want a closer look here are some of them: http://electricorchid.blogspot.com/2008/03/dark-desires-black-orchids.html (just paste this into your search engine) but there are many many more black orchids...Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi! I am simply enamoured with black flowers too here are some other black flowers for you to look at :) They're a feast for the eyes... http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/black-flowerscarnations

    ReplyDelete
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