Information about them
Easy to grow
Bloom from spring to frost
How they get the different colors is because of the poor correlation between the genotype and phenotype. There are two different ways that this happens.
Genotype will not produce exactly the same array of anthocyanins
Flower color is a very complex characteristic that involves chemical interaction of two different flavonid.
Definitions
Anthocyanins means blue/violet/red flavonoid pigment in the plant
Flavonoid means any of a large class of plant pigments having a structure based on or similar to that of flavone
Flavone means a colorless crystalline compound that is the basis of a number of white/yellow plant pigments
Four sub questions
How could this variation arise from natural selection in the population? What kind of mutation would have to occur for this variation to happen in the first place? How is this variation a positive factor? Negative factor? How could you increase the visibility of the trait, make it more exaggerated?
The variation arose from the amount of anthocyanins in the flower. A mutation that is affecting the anthocyanins is an insertion. It is a positive because the flowers are able to get pollinated by different birds and bees. You can increase the visibility of the trait by increasing the amount of anthocyanins.
Credits:
Created with images by Mkvarda - "petunia pink flower" • manseok - "petunia flowers tabitha" • Sarah McDevitt - "purples" • MabelAmber - "petunia flower blooming" • knottyboy - "Petunia heart" • congerdesign - "petunia flowers balkonblumen" • Swami Stream - "3 Petunias" • Les Serres Fortier - "Pétunia Madness Sheer"