Ultraviolet pictures of plants

Hoy wrote:

If you ever have wondered how a plant looks in UV-light you can get the answer here - or at least for some plants.
Put another way, you can view the plants more in the way an insect does!

http://www.ultravioletphotography.com/content/

I've been wondering for a while now how to take this type of picture, but finding the right type of information proved difficult. Now, thank you Trond, problem solved. ;D
Some stunning images here. :o

My pleassure, Longma!

Hoy wrote:

If you ever have wondered how a plant looks in UV-light you can get the answer here. Put another way, you can view the plants more in the way an insect does!

http://www.ultravioletphotography.com/content/

Interesting, but sorry i don't get it.  If purple crocus flowers look the same as white ones, then why did purple evolve?  Unless purple is less appealing to Mark's rabbits?  It seems to me that the wavelenghts this group uses, tends to obscure a lot of detail.  I can remember some other photographs of flowers in some alternate spectum, where there were markings on some flowers that could not be seen by us humans.  (Maybe National Geographic from 40 to 50 years ago)
Regards,
Charles S Massachusetts USA

externmed wrote:

  If purple crocus flowers look the same as white ones, then why did purple evolve?
Regards,
Charles S Massachusetts USA

Maybe it's because it's a darker color, and absorbs more heat from the sun?

Hi Charles,
Sorry I didn't notice your question till Rick made an answer!
I am no expert but I think it is important for plants pollinated by insect to look similar in the UV spectrum as at least the honeybees are faithful to one kind of flower at the time. If plants have other colours in our eyes I can think of 3 reasons for that.

As Rick suggests to increase temperature; to avoid grazing animals; purely by chance.

externmed wrote:

If purple crocus flowers look the same as white ones, then why did purple evolve? 

I don't think the purple and white flowers do look the same to pollinators. Bees see visible light as well as ultraviolet light, but the uv photo I believe the uv photo presumably shows mostly or entirely uv. The flowers still differ in visible light. To a bee, the difference between a flower that is white with some uv reflectance and one that is purple plus some uv reflectance may be analogous to how we perceive green versus blue-green.

Also, note that some flowers do show markings in uv that we can't see with our vision. An example is Potentilla argentea (http://www.ultravioletphotography.com/content/index.php?/topic/34-potent...), which has plain yellow petals to human eyes, but the petals have blotches at the base that are revealed in uv.

Janet wrote:

Bees see [other humanly] visible light as well as ultraviolet light

Good Point!!

How easily we can easily be led astray by a simple suggestion. :)

Bees do see about the same light as humans but not red. However what is important is the marks on the petals that often show only in UV. Those marks act as signs showing the way to the nectar.