Heirbloom

The genes

The traits

What a flower can show, gene by gene, with portraits of wild flowers from the game.

How rare is rare

Every trait on a flower card has a tier chip that says how often wild flowers of that species show it:

  • Common you'll see it all the time
  • Uncommon turns up now and then
  • Rare a lucky find in the wild

There are rarer tiers than these. This site doesn't show them.

Tiers depend on the species. A blotch is the usual pansy face, but on a daisy it's rarer than anything on this page. Each species has its own wild habits, and breeding lets you take a trait from where it's common to where it isn't.

Colour

Colour comes from several genes working together: two switches that let colour through at all, two pigment genes that choose between blue-purple and red-pink, a carotenoid gene for yellows, three depth genes and a warm-cool tilt. Between them they make dozens of named colours, from Cream and Lemon to Iris and Mulberry.

Each species starts somewhere different. Most wild sunflowers are Lemon, most wild hydrangeas White, and wild tulips come up in Rose, White, Iris and Coral.

  • A lemon pointed sunflower, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Lemon Pointed SunflowerThe usual wild sunflower Common
  • A blush round hydrangea, semi-double, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Blush Round HydrangeaBlush, semi-double Uncommon
  • A magenta round pansy, with a ring round the centre in white, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Magenta Round PansyMagenta, eyed in white Uncommon
  • A rose round tulip, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Rose Round TulipRose, the commonest wild tulip Common

Pattern

A dozen or so patterns, ranked from strong to weak, as the breeding page explains. A flower shows the strongest one it carries.

  • A cream round pansy, with a dark blotch at the base of each petal in yellow, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Cream Round PansyBlotched Common
  • A rose round tulip, with stripes in white, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Rose Round TulipStriped Uncommon
  • A coral frilled foxglove, with speckles in maroon, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Coral Frilled FoxgloveSpeckled Common
  • A white round daisy, with a ring round the centre in yellow, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    White Round DaisyEyed Rare
  • A rose round rose, with fine veins in red, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Rose Round RoseVeined Uncommon
  • A apricot round poppy, with a second colour on part of each petal in pink, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Apricot Round PoppyBicolor Uncommon
  • A terracotta star pansy, with rays from the centre in white, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Terracotta Star PansyRayed Uncommon
  • A white round peony, with a coloured rim in red, fully double, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    White Round PeonyPicotee Uncommon
  • A white pointed dahlia, with coloured tips in white, fully double, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    White Pointed DahliaTipped Uncommon
  • A lemon pointed sunflower, with colour that fades along the petal in red, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Lemon Pointed SunflowerOmbré Rare

Some species lean toward a pattern. Speckles are in the foxglove's nature, a blotch in the pansy's, and the moth orchid comes speckled or veined far more often than most.

Marking colour

A patterned flower's markings have a colour of their own, set by a separate gene with several versions. Wild foxgloves are mostly marked in wine or mulberry, sunflowers in cherry and deep tangerine, daisies in lemon. Cross a foxglove's dark spotting onto a pale bloom and you've got something the hedgerow rarely makes.

  • A flame frilled foxglove, with a dark blotch at the base of each petal in maroon, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Flame Frilled FoxgloveBlotched in wine Rare
  • A scarlet round poppy, with a ring round the centre in purple, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Scarlet Round PoppyEyed in mulberry Rare
  • A lemon round sunflower, with stripes in red, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Lemon Round SunflowerStriped in cherry Rare

Petal shape

Round, pointed, frilled or star, with round the strongest. Wild lilies are mostly pointed, and lilies and hydrangeas come up star-shaped fairly often. On a daisy, tulip or rose a star is very rare.

  • A lemon star lily, with speckles in red, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Lemon Star LilyStar, speckled in cherry Uncommon
  • A rose frilled dahlia, with a coloured rim in white, semi-double, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Rose Frilled DahliaFrilled, picotee in white Common
  • A rose pointed tulip, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Rose Pointed TulipPointed Common

Size

Small, medium or large. Size blends, so one large copy and one small copy make a medium. Sunflowers and queens of the night run large; poppies and pansies run small.

Single, semi-double, double

Doubling adds up one copy at a time: no copies is a single flower, one copy a semi-double, two a full double. Roses, peonies and dahlias carry plenty of it in the wild. On a tulip or a hydrangea a full double is Rare.

  • A flame round rose, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Flame Round RoseSingle Common
  • A rose round rose, semi-double, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Rose Round RoseSemi-double Common
  • A rose round rose, fully double, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Rose Round RoseDouble Common
  • A pale amethyst round tulip, with stripes in white, fully double, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Pale Amethyst Round TulipDouble, striped in white Rare

Two-tone

A recessive gene that shades each petal from its base colour to a second one. It turns up now and then in the wild, and since it's recessive, two carriers are the quickest way to more of it.

  • A hot pink round tulip, fading to a second colour at the tips, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Hot Pink Round TulipTwo-tone Rare
  • A pale lilac round hydrangea, fading to a second colour at the tips, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Pale Lilac Round HydrangeaTwo-tone Rare

Feathered

In the 1630s a tulip with feathered, flamed petals could sell for more than a house. The real breaks came from a virus. In Heirbloom they come from a jumping gene that breaks the colour up along the petal edges. One copy feathers the rims.

  • A iris pointed tulip, its petal rims feathered by a jumping gene, on its stem against a dark backdrop.
    Iris Pointed TulipFeathered rims Uncommon

And the rest

  • Not on this pageSome flowers open with something extra. Some only at certain times of year.

Some flowers are better found than read about. The Florilegium shows a question mark for every page you haven't filled yet.

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More about the flowers