{"id":51118,"date":"2015-09-09T15:41:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T19:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/plant-talk\/?p=51118"},"modified":"2015-09-09T15:41:32","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T19:41:32","slug":"its-not-easy-being-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/2015\/09\/horticulture-2\/its-not-easy-being-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Not Easy Being Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kristine Paulus<\/a> is NYBG<\/a>\u2019s Plant Records Manager. She is responsible for the curation of The Lionel Goldfrank III Computerized Catalog of the Living Collections. She manages nomenclature standards and the plant labels for all exhibitions, gardens, and collections, while coordinating with staff, scientists, students, and the public on all garden-related plant information.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Amsonia<\/a>
Amsonia<\/em> ‘Blue Ice’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just about every color in the spectrum is represented somewhere in The New York Botanical Garden, but this summer blue is particularly significant. According to scientific studies, the hue is the most universally liked by humanity and so visitors to the Garden will certainly be pleased at the sight of the evocation of Frida Kahlo\u2019s\u00a0Casa Azul in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory<\/a> The celebrated Mexican painter\u2019s famous blue house was closely studied, enabling exhibitions staff to precisely match a backdrop of cobalt-blue walls for FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that Frida chose this shade for her abode. Blue has more symbolic meanings than any other color. As the tint of life-giving water and of the sky, home to numerous deities of many cultures, blue has been held in high regard throughout time. In art and in life it has been reserved for the most important people and things, including Pharaohs, Renaissance Madonnas, and Elvis\u2019 shoes. The first synthetic pigment ever created, invented by the Ancient Egyptians, was, of course, blue! The pursuit of the perfect blue has molded entire civilizations. [1]<\/a>
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\nThough a multitude of adjectives are used to characterize the range of values from azure, to cerulean, cyan, turquoise, and ultramarine, one simple primary color is used to describe a song note and a musical genre, an artistic period, a type of person, a lunar phase, or a mood. Yet, despite the cultural importance of this chroma, blue is rare in nature\u2014perhaps that is what makes it so special. Minerals and stones such as azurite and lapis lazuli are not so common, as with birds or insects, which more frequently have warmer tones instead.<\/p>\n

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Plants bearing blue flowers are even rarer. Less than 10 percent of the 280,000 species of flowering plants produce blue flowers. [2]<\/a> Plants don\u2019t have a true blue pigment. Instead, they modify their red anthocyanin pigments and perform some complicated alterations of molecules and ions, with a dash of smoke and mirrors for effect (actually, reflected light\u2014but I\u2019ll leave it to our friends in Science to better explain that one).<\/p>\n

Embrace the rarity of this spectacle and walk the Garden\u2019s grounds to see some of our beautiful blue-flowering plants blooming now:<\/p>\n