Are flowers an equal part of the diet nutritionally?

[SinLA]

Are flowers (hibiscus, rosebuds, hollyhock, etc) as equally nutritious as green plants (radicchio, escarole, mustard/dandelion greens, endive, squash leaves, etc.)? I know variety is important, but I've mentally been thinking of them more like a treat rather than an equally nutritious part of the main meal and I'm not sure that's right...

 

[Tom]

This is one of those things that has been repeated for decades, but absent years of my own side-by-side testing, I can neither verify, nor deny. What I've always been told is that flowers should make up no more than around 10% of the diet. I think that it is one of those things where there is a WIDE margin of error. With a good varied diet, I am sure that a tortoise would be fine with 0% flowers or 30% flowers in the diet, or anywhere in-between.

Personally, I throw handfuls of flowers into the food mix buckets seasonally and whenever I can get them. I use a large amount of lavatera flowers annually (but tiny percentage of any individual's diet...), and also some roses and hibiscus. And dandelions when I can get them. I have four lavatera bushes that produce flowers most of every year and I'm constantly plucking them and throwing them in the food buckets. My wife "deadheads" her rose bushes periodically, and we use no chemicals on them, so those go into the mix every once in a while.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I've always thought the same thing when I feed flowers. (Like they are a side item and not the actual meal)
But I cannot say for sure.
The internet says this: