Treasury flower - Gazania rigens in reflected ultraviolet photography and simulated bee vision

Today shots of a very liked, long blooming spring flower, an all yellowish white variant Treasury flower - Gazania rigens in reflected ultraviolet photography and simulated bee vision. All shots were done at about f5.6 in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter, as well as my XBV filter for simulated bee and butterfly vision. Lens was a CERCO 94mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was sunlight.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Triptych of human vision, UV and simulated bee vision (left to right):
 

This Gazania's outer petals reflect strongly UV around 372nm, wheras the inner parts are much darker hence forming UV nectar guides for bees. There are also highly UV reflecting marks inside around a dark UV center, all invisible to us humans but clearly visible to bees, and all this gets nicely visible here, also in simulated bee vision.

I have written about Gazania previously HERE
 
Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...

More info on this very interesting field may be found on my site http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos