What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I thought that I had dreamt this story.... When I told my brother he laughed and said this was a book that he had when we were children! He couldn't remember the title or much more of the story than me.

The main character in the book I think is a young boy. The kingdom in which the townsfolk live has a history of this single black flower growing on one particular night of the year. After this one night the flower won't grow again for a long time, I think it won't grow for a lifetime. No one knows where in the country the flower will come. The flower grows only at night. People in the country start to organise themselves into hunt groups, so they can search land together. There are several theories based on different reasonings where the flower will come up.

The young boy searches with (I think) his grandad, and/or a small group of misfit friends. They are allocated a very small piece of land to search where no one thinks the flower will grow. There is some distraction during the night of the hunt and the boy finds the flower. However due to some moral reason (perhaps on the neighbouring piece of land) the boy doesn't pick the flower straight away. A villan takes the flower by digging it up with the soil around it.

I can't remember the significance of finding the flower. Wealth/eternal life springs to mind. I think that the boy's grandad is involved because he remembers the previous black flower.

Not sure of what species the flower is. I thought for a long time it was a tulip.... which resulted in my buying "The Black Tulip".... bit of a different story....

This is all I can remember! How frustrating!

This is a book which we had in the 90's. We both have no idea of any cover picture, title, author, character names.... I would really love to read this again though. Please help, if you can.

I've been doing some keyword searches in WorldCat but haven't turned up anything yet. I see you are in the UK. Do you think the book was British in origin? Can you put a more exact date on when you would have obtained/read the book? Earliest & latest possible dates are very helpful, and also if you recall if you got it new at a bookstore, school book fair, borrowed it from the library, etc. that is all helpful.

Would you classify it as science fiction or fantasy?

Maybe the fantasy book Wings of Flame?

There was a black flower in it that had great symbolism and eating the flower brought forgetfulness or maybe enlightenment. The protagonist was a teen boy who had been exiled into the care of a neighboring king (slotted to become the king's heir, but he didn't know that) who feels alone in the world for all but his horse, but eventually makes a friend in a young serf who aids and assists him. The climax of the novel had the two teens exploring in a mysterious and rather barren place in conflict with the head of the religious order, and then the head ate the black flower and forgot to be in conflict with them.

It's been such along time that I've read this book, and the details in my memory are rather fuzzy. :(

Shah, are you still looking for this book? Was it Wings of Flame?