Cattleya trianae Cattleya trianae Cattleya trianae (Lind. & Rchb. fil), also known as "Flor de Mayo" ("May flower") or "Christmas orchid", is a plant belonging to the Orchidaceae family. It grows as an epiphytic orchid, with succulent leaves, endemic to Colombia where it was nominated as the national flower in November 1936. That year, the National Academy of History of Argentina asked the Latin American countries to participate in an exhibition with the representative flowers of each country. The Colombian government gave the botanist Emilio Robledo the task to designate the most representative flowering plant of the country. The choice of "Cattleya
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