The genes
The species
Every flower in the game so far, roughly in the order you'll meet them. The quick ones are for crossing a lot; the slow ones are worth the wait. Each portrait is a wild flower from the game.
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White Round Daisy Common Daisy Bellis perennis
A daisy is hundreds of flowers. Each white petal is a ray floret, and the yellow eye is packed with tiny disc florets. The name is the day's eye: it opens at dawn and shuts at dusk.
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Cream Round Pansy Common Pansy Viola × wittrockiana
The pansy's face is a nectar guide: the dark blotch and lines point bees to the back of the flower. Its name comes from the French pensée, a thought.
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Rose Round Tulip Uncommon Tulip Tulipa
Wild tulips come from the mountains of Central Asia. Its three petals and three sepals look the same, so botanists call all six tepals.
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Coral Round Poppy Common Poppy Papaver rhoeas
A field poppy's seed can lie in the soil for decades and sprout when the ground is dug. That's why the fields of Flanders flowered red after the First World War.
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Rose Round Rose Common Rose Rosa
A wild rose has five petals. The full garden rose comes from stamens that turned into petals, a change growers kept and doubled for centuries.
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Lemon Star Lily Uncommon Lily Lilium
A true lily grows from a bulb of loose scales, and each scale can grow into a new bulb. Lily pollen is poisonous to cats, even a little licked from their fur.
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Lemon Pointed Sunflower Common Sunflower Helianthus annuus
A young sunflower follows the sun all day and swings back east overnight. Once it flowers it stops, facing east, where the morning sun warms the head and brings the bees.
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Coral Frilled Foxglove Common Foxglove Digitalis purpurea
The spotted throat is a landing strip for bumblebees, which climb right into the bell. The heart drug digitalis still comes from it, first described by William Withering in 1785.
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Blush Round Hydrangea Uncommon Hydrangea Hydrangea macrophylla
Most of a hydrangea's showy flowers are sterile. The colour is in sepals that work as a flag for insects, and the small fertile flowers hide in the middle.
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Rose Round Peony Common Peony Paeonia
Peonies have been grown in China for more than a thousand years, where the tree peony is called the king of flowers. A peony can flower in the same spot for a century.
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Flame Round Dahlia Common Dahlia Dahlia
Garden dahlias carry eight sets of chromosomes, one reason they come in so many forms. They came to Europe from Mexico as a food crop; the tubers tasted poor but the flowers caught on.
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White Pointed Queen of the Night Common Queen of the Night Epiphyllum oxypetalum
The queen of the night is a climbing cactus. Each flower opens after dark, fills the air with scent for moths and bats, and has wilted by morning.
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Scarlet Frilled Moth Orchid Common Moth Orchid Phalaenopsis
In the wild a moth orchid grows on trees, holding on with silvery roots that soak up rain. Its seed is as fine as dust and needs the right fungus to sprout.
Read on
How breeding works