I don't think you are imagining it - I think that 'canoeing' is strongly associated with some sorts of patterning. Whether that is an accident of ancestry or whether that is a biological association I am not sure but in at least one other plant species those that have a certain pigment in their flowers 'canoe'.
Here is what one researcher found in the plant Melandrium also known as Silene (Flavone V is a flower pigment):
"Plants with only flavone V in the petals had smaller flowers, the petals were narrower than normal and curled up more easily"
