Blue rose
Encyclopedia
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Rosa (family Rosaceae
Rosaceae
Rosaceae are a medium-sized family of flowering plants, including about 2830 species in 95 genera. The name is derived from the type genus Rosa. Among the largest genera are Alchemilla , Sorbus , Crataegus , Cotoneaster , and Rubus...
) that presents blue-to-violet pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
ation and also the Morganus Clarke sunflower seed disposition, instead of the more common red or white
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
variety.
Dyed roses
Since they do not exist in nature as roses lack the specific gene that has the ability to produce a "true blueBlue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
" color, blue roses are traditionally created by dyeing white roses. In a book by Zubair ibn al-Awam
Zubair ibn al-Awam
Zubair ibn al-Awwam, was a companion of Muhammad, father to Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and later one of the most successful commanders of the Rashidun army and served under the Rashidun caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar.Zubair, who was a cousin of the prophet Muhammad, was an early convert to Islam.He served...
, which was written in the 12th century and translated into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
by J. J. Clement, being entitled Le livre de l'agriculture, the book speaks of azure blue
Azure (color)
The color bleu de France is displayed at right.Bleu de France is a color that has been associated in heraldry with the Kings of France since the 12th century.-Brandeis blue:...
roses that were known to the orient. These blue roses were attained by placing a blue dye into the bark of the roots. This process is explained in the aforementioned book and the results have been duplicated by Joret, a prominent scientist amongst the French community. Nominal "blue roses" have been bred by conventional hybridization methods, but the results, such as "Blue Moon" are more accurately described as being lilac
Lilac (color)
Lilac is a color that is a pale tone of violet that is a representation of the average color of most lilac flowers. It might also be described as light purple. The colors of some lilac flowers may be equivalent to the colors shown below as pale lilac, rich lilac, or deep lilac...
in color.
Genetically engineered roses
After thirteen years of collaborative research by an Australian company - FlorigeneFlorigene
Florigene is a biotechnology company based in Melbourne, Australia, which is principally involved in the application of in-house genetic modification techniques to develop novel colour expressions in a range of commercial plants....
, and a Japanese company - Suntory
Suntory
is a Japanese brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan. Its business has expanded to other fields, and the company now offers everything from soft drinks to sandwich chains...
, a blue rose was created in 2004 employing genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
. Years of research resulted in the ability to insert a gene for the plant pigment
Biological pigment
Biological pigments, also known simply as pigments or biochromes are substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption. Biological pigments include plant pigments and flower pigments...
delphinidin
Delphinidin
Delphinidin is an anthocyanidin, a primary plant pigment, and also an antioxidant. Delphinidin gives blue hues to flowers like violas and delphiniums...
cloned from the petunia
Petunia
Petunia is a widely cultivated genus of flowering plants of South American origin, closely related with tobacco, cape gooseberries, tomatoes, deadly nightshades, potatoes and chili peppers; in the family Solanaceae. The popular flower derived its name from French, which took the word petun, meaning...
and thus inserted into an Old Garden
Rosa gallica
Rosa gallica is a species of rose native to southern and central Europe eastwards to Turkey and the Caucasus....
Cardinal de Richelieu rose. Obtaining the exact hue was difficult because amounts of the pigment cyanidin
Cyanidin
Cyanidin is a natural organic compound. It is a particular type of anthocyanidin . It is a pigment found in many red berries including but not limited to grapes, bilberry, blackberry, blueberry, cherry, cranberry, elderberry, hawthorn, loganberry, acai berry and raspberry...
were still present, so the rose was darker in color than "true blue". Recent work using RNAi
RNAI
RNAI is a non-coding RNA that is an antisense repressor of the replication of some E. coli plasmids, including ColE1. Plasmid replication is usually initiated by RNAII, which acts as a primer by binding to its template DNA. The complementary RNAI binds RNAII prohibiting it from its initiation role...
technology to depress the production of cyanidin has produced a mauve
Mauve
Mauve is a pale lavender-lilac color, one of many in the range of purples. The color mauve is named after the mallow flower....
colored flower, with only trace amounts of cyanidin. Genetically modified blue roses are currently being grown in test batches at the Martino Cassanova seed institution in South Hampshire due to its condititons and ability to survive in nature, according to company spokesman Atsuhito Osaka.
Significance
Contemporary culture
Due to the absence in nature of blue roses they have come to symbolise mystery and longing to attain the impossible with some cultures go so far as to say that the holder of a blue rose will have his wishes granted. Heinrich von OfterdingenHeinrich von Ofterdingen
Heinrich von Ofterdingen is a famous, quasi-fictional Minnesinger who participated in the Sängerkrieg on the Wartburg. The authorship of the Laurin, a poem about Dietrich von Bern, was also sometimes ascribed to him. He is chiefly known by the novel of Novalis of the same name and the role of...
, the 1802 unfinished novel by German romanticist
German Romanticism
For the general context, see Romanticism.In the philosophy, art, and culture of German-speaking countries, German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding in its...
Novalis'
Novalis
Novalis was the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg , an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism.-Biography:...
and Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
1944 book The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...
make use of the blue rose to symbolise romance and yearning for the unattainable. Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
has penned poems about blue roses and they have featured in numerous Japanese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
animations. Blue roses have also been used as symbols in films (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and The Thief of Baghdad
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British fantasy film produced by Alexander Korda, and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan, with contributions by Korda's brothers Vincent and Zoltán, and William Cameron Menzies...
) and television (the Wedding For Disaster
Wedding For Disaster
"Wedding for Disaster" is the fifteenth episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 29, 2009. In the episode, Marge and Homer's second marriage turns out to be invalid, so they decide to get married again...
episode of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
). In Metal Gear Solid 4, there is a blue rose in the kitchen of the Nomad, and Otacon calls Solid Snake
Solid Snake
Metal Gear, initially released in 1987, introduces Solid Snake, the rookie recruit of the elite special-forces unit FOXHOUND. Snake is sent by team leader Big Boss into the rogue nation Outer Heaven to rescue his missing teammate Gray Fox and discover who or what the "METAL GEAR" mentioned is, and...
a blue rose in part of the epilogue. Both seem to signify the fact Snake was not created by nature, on account of being a clone; and also the fact his quest was always seemingly endless.