What makes roses pink?
Rose pigmentation is primarily based on flavonoids. It is a pigment family that produces the purples, reds and red-oranges. One subgroup of the flavonoid class are the ~300 anthocyanins that give red to purple to blue tones. Roses owe their red color to anthocyanins however they lack the anthocyanin pigments found in other flower species that produce blue coloration. http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publica… Roses produce these to varying levels of saturation to create deep reds or lighter ones. This is controlled by several genes adding their expressed protein adding to the total amount of each pigment that adds to the final color. Examples of anthocyanins contained in roses include: peonin found in R. rugosa and its many strong pink and purple-red hybrids but also in cardinal red ‘Europeana’ and ‘Adelaide Hoodless’. Pelargonidin produces scarlet and shrimp-pink in modern rose
