diff --git a/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js b/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js
index d8d3949a4f7..31e51c3c019 100644
--- a/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js
+++ b/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js
@@ -215,5 +215,19 @@ module.exports = {
     },
     sort: pieAttrs.sort,
 
+    root: {
+        color: {
+            valType: 'color',
+            editType: 'calc',
+            role: 'style',
+            dflt: 'rgba(0,0,0,0)',
+            description: [
+                'sets the color of the root node for a sunburst or a treemap trace.',
+                'this has no effect when a colorscale is used to set the markers.'
+            ].join(' ')
+        },
+        editType: 'calc'
+    },
+
     domain: domainAttrs({name: 'sunburst', trace: true, editType: 'calc'})
 };
diff --git a/src/traces/sunburst/calc.js b/src/traces/sunburst/calc.js
index 35189995f45..58eab8ffae0 100644
--- a/src/traces/sunburst/calc.js
+++ b/src/traces/sunburst/calc.js
@@ -276,8 +276,8 @@ exports._runCrossTraceCalc = function(desiredType, gd) {
                     dfltColorCount++;
                 }
             } else {
-                // root gets no coloring by default
-                cdi.color = 'rgba(0,0,0,0)';
+                // set root color. no coloring by default.
+                cdi.color = cdi.trace.root.color;
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js b/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js
index b02e3ac81e7..2ddd3da5a3f 100644
--- a/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js
+++ b/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js
@@ -77,6 +77,8 @@ module.exports = function supplyDefaults(traceIn, traceOut, defaultColor, layout
 
     coerce('rotation');
 
+    coerce('root.color');
+
     handleDomainDefaults(traceOut, layout, coerce);
 
     // do not support transforms for now
diff --git a/src/traces/treemap/attributes.js b/src/traces/treemap/attributes.js
index 0188e564957..ea58032199f 100644
--- a/src/traces/treemap/attributes.js
+++ b/src/traces/treemap/attributes.js
@@ -269,6 +269,7 @@ module.exports = {
         ].join(' ')
     },
     sort: pieAttrs.sort,
+    root: sunburstAttrs.root,
 
     domain: domainAttrs({name: 'treemap', trace: true, editType: 'calc'}),
 };
diff --git a/src/traces/treemap/defaults.js b/src/traces/treemap/defaults.js
index 4a2315fa7bb..1b0e6f2116e 100644
--- a/src/traces/treemap/defaults.js
+++ b/src/traces/treemap/defaults.js
@@ -116,6 +116,8 @@ module.exports = function supplyDefaults(traceIn, traceOut, defaultColor, layout
 
     coerce('sort');
 
+    coerce('root.color');
+
     handleDomainDefaults(traceOut, layout, coerce);
 
     // do not support transforms for now