Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds (1871) is an oil on mahogany panel picture by Martin Johnson Heade acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 1982. Inspired perhaps by the works of Charles Darwin and Frederic Edwin Church, Heade planned to produce a deluxe book in the 1860s depicting Brazilian hummingbirds in tropical settings, and, to that end, created a series of 40 small pictures called "The Gems of Brazil". The project was abandoned, but Heade retained his interest in hummingbirds and continued to paint them in combination with orchids and jungle backgrounds through the
Basics of blue flower colouration This phenomenon we can observe in the morning glory (Ipomoea tricolor) and Japanese blue morning glory (Ipomoea nil) petals. During the flower development we can observe change of the flower colour form purple to blue. Morning glory has just one delphinidin type anthocyanin and the composition of it does not change during the flower development, but change of the colour is caused by increase of pH in vacuole of coloured cells from 6.6 in buds to 7.7 in fully matured flowers. During the early stage of development acidic pH is maintained by proton pumps, on the latter stage K+/H+ exchanger