 The first example is the brown or black flower.
In this case the flower is of quite normal form with
distinct sepals and petals and occurred along with
several others of similar colour among the seedlings from
a hand-pollinated cross that was expected to produce
white flowers with brown eyes. Further crossing showed that the black flower is associated with a recessive gene. It presumably arises because the switch that turns on the development of brown pigmentation for the petals is also turned on for the sepals. |
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 The second case was a flower exhibited by delphiniuim breeder, Duncan McGlashan. This particularly weird example of what he terms an 'Oddball' is characterised by quite amazing extension of unfertilised carpels (seed pods) in a flower that has little colour in the sepals or petals. |
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 The third case is a fairly normal-looking
flower, except for a green cluster in the centre of the
eye. These green clusters extended on a stalk and
developed as well-formed normal flowers with the same
colouring as the first set. Occasional development of such secondary buds is fairly common but the unusual feature here was that every floret on the plant flowered a second time. Such repeat flowering would seem to be very advantageous for the perennial border. The problem with this plant was that the sepals from the first flowering remained firmly attached as a rotting reminder of the former glory. |