Suntory Blue
A reference entry for a colour assembled out of three donor species and four transplanted genes, and that no one who looks at it will agree is the colour it is.
Behind the curtain+
One story, per the micro mandate: the engineered blue rose, chosen because the article and its comment thread disagree about the basic fact of what colour the object is.
A single colour-nomenclature card, because the day's material is literally a new colour and the flattest possible form for a colour is its catalogue entry; the piece is the gap between the field that states the colour and the field that states what is seen, so nothing is built around it.
Suntory Blue
Also filed as Violet-blue rose. Suntory Global Innovation Center.
Class Anthocyanin, copigmented.
Constituents Malvidin, via a gene from the Canterbury bell. Isoorientin, via genes from the wishbone flower and the clustered gentian. Isoorientin has no colour of its own. Its only function is to keep the malvidin from coming apart.
Native to Nothing. The rose has never carried the enzyme. Four genes were moved into a pale pink cultivar.
Occurrence in animal None recorded.
Occurrence in vegetable One rose, and the three flowers it was taken from.
Occurrence in mineral None recorded.
Permanence Seven years under glass in Japan. Three years in the field in Colombia.
Colour Blue.
Colour observed Purple. Also mild purple, sickly purple, and kinda purple. By one observer, white and gold.