Flower Pigment Composition of Natural Bud-Variants Among Hybrid Chinese Azaleas,Rhododendron Simsii(Planch.)

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Abstract
Summary The different flower-colour cultivars which arise by bud mutation from hybrids of Rhododendron simsii (Chinese azalea) present the same qualitative pattern of anthocyanin and flavonol pigments. Therefore, the quantities of anthocyanins and flavonols have been compared. For cultivars with colours that are based on cyanidin and peonidin as the only anthocyanidins the difference between bluish-red and magenta petal colours (Horticultural Colour Chart number >52) and their scarlet or salmon-orange sports (H.C.C. number <52) lies in the latter possessing a very much lower total flavonol content (or its absence) and a correspondingly higher cyanidin content. With cultivars that are low in flavonols a rise in the ratio of cyanidin 3, 5-diglycoside to cyanidin 3-glycoside has a reddening effect. With cultivars that are high in flavonols this ratio is relatively unimportant. Variations in the pH of the petal juice (3.35 → 3.85) are the same within groups of both orange and magenta cultivars. It seems probable that a metal ion is required in addition to anthocyanin and flavonol in order to produce a co-pigmentation effect.

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