Why are there so many and so few white flowers?

1996/08/01 by Peter G. Kevan, Peter Kevan, Martín Giurfa +3 · 1 voice · 5 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Animal and Plant Science Education #Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research #Plant and animal studies

paper · doi:10.1016/1360-1385(96)20008-1

crossref issued 1996/08/01 · crossref published 1996/08/01 · crossref published-print 1996/08/01 · openalex publication_date 1996/08/01 · crossref created 2002/07/26 · crossref deposited 2024/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/01/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Citations

• The colour hexagon: a chromaticity diagram based on photoreceptor excitations as a generalized representation of colour opponency

Cited by

• Pollen, anther, stamen, and androecium mimicry
• Heat drastically alters floral color and pigment composition without affecting flower conspicuousness
• Stacked scattering: The key to bright flowers lies in the mesophyll
• Bees, flowers and UV
• Dimorphic enantiostyly and its function for pollination by carpenter bees in a pollen‐rewarding Caribbean bloodwort

Discussions

• Ever wondered why so many different flowers (apple, cherry, elderflower, chestnut,...) are white? Turns out they are not, really -- it's just that humans can't see colours in the relevant spectrum, co [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]