Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Gaillardia - trichromatic bee vision

This is about an interesting find, when I was wondering around in parks taking shots using my "bee vision" filter XBV2. I know that prominent "Gaillardia" flower since I was a kid, but I never thought that it would exhibit some prominent UV pattern - but it does! Have alook at my results, before we discuss that:

[click on image yields a larger one]

VIS shot:

simulated tetrachromatic vision ("butterfly vision" shot) (UV+B+G+R) using XBV2 filter:

simulated trichromatic vision ("bee vision" shot) (UV+B+G) using XBV2 filter:

I found it especially fascinating, that the red part of that prominent Gaillardia pattern has a very strong UV reflectance, accompanied by a prominent pattern the petal tips exhibits (UV+Green) so as to generate that "heliport landing spot" pattern. Is it just a coincidence that the pollen exhibits the very same color (and do I see some fluorescence there - to make the pollen look even brighter??)

