I've notice the interesting phenomenon lately of my radish flowers turning purple after being white for a while, as the stalk and seed pods (though not the leaves) take on a purple-red highlight as well.
Just curious, what's happening here? Does the root (the "radish") release its pigment at some point as it's absorbed? Is it an indicator of soil pH? Something to do with pollination?
The roots seem to turn from bright red to dark purple around this point as well.
From radishes, I know nothing but in grapes, the color is made in the leaf, and translocated to the grape. This is the reason that red grapes have red leaves in the fall, and white grapes have yellow leaves.
Out of curiosity, I looked up "Anthocyanin" in Wikipedia and among other things it said,"In flowers, bright reds and purples are adaptive for attracting pollinators. In fruits, the colorful skins also attract the attention of animals, which may eat the fruits and disperse the seeds."
Curiosity peeked, I continued on to "Radishes". Nothing I could find there related to anthocyanins but but the article pointed out that some radishes are more prone to pithiness than others. French Breakfast was among the quickest to turn pithy and White Icicle or just Icicle has better than average resistance to pithiness.
Lastly, it takes a radish only three to four weeks to reach maturity, after which pithiness will eventually set in.
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