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

Today studio shots of that new type, long blooming flower, an all yellow filled Gazania flower with small red dots at its petals inner end, a variant of a Treasury flower - Gazania rigens shot in reflected ultraviolet photography and simulated bee and butterfly vision. All shots were done at f11 in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter, as well as my XBV filters for simulated bee and butterfly vision. Lens was a UV-Nikkor 105mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was a modified Xenon flash.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Human vision:
 

Reflected UV:
 

Simulated butterfly vision:
 

Simulated bee vision:
 

Quadriptych of human vision, UV, simulated bee and butterfly vision (left to right, top to bottom):
 

This Gazania's outer petals reflect UV around 365nm, whereas the inner parts are quite darker, hence forming UV nectar guides for UV seeing insects. There are also highly UV reflecting marks inside around a dark UV center, all invisible to us humans but clearly visible to bees and butterflies, and all this gets nicely visible here, also in simulated bee and butterfly vision.

I have written about this 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