Mexican Zinnia - Zinnia haagenea in reflected ultraviolet photography and simulated butterfly and bee vision XVII

Today for the first time in 2014 shots of a specimen of a very decorative summer flower, Mexican Zinnia - Zinnia haagenea in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter as well as in simulated butterfly and bee vision using my proprietary XBV filters. Lens was my CERCO 94mm quartz flourite lens. Light source was sunlight. All shots were done at about f5.6.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visible light image
 

UV image using Baader-U filter (approx. 320-395nm, effective peak approx. 375nm):  

Simulated butterfly vision image using XBV3 filter:  

Simulated bee vision image using XBV6 filter:  

Quadriptych of the above images:
 

Mexican Zinnia flowers have a very specific UV pattern. Their petals are very UV dark in the middle and bottom, but their petal tips are very UV bright, reaching much deeper into UV as any other flower I know (< 345nm), and all this gets nicely visible.


Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...