Peonies bloom fleetingly at the end of spring and start of summer, usually only lasting around 10 days. Inspired by this tweet from Dr Jess Wade, here’s a quick look at the molecule which gives them their colour. There’s more on the pH dependence of anthocyanin colour here.
One reply on “Peonin and the colour of peonies”
[…] – in particular peonin (an anthocyanin pigment), whose colour – ranging from blue to red – is pH-dependent. However, it’s probably not as straightforward as this might suggest; the ratio of at least six […]