Just a pretty pic taken yesterday...
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Just a pretty pic taken yesterday...
Guess these plants' calendar is a bit confused.
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- cistus nov 2006 1 (Medium).JPG (94.68 KiB) Viewed 34180 times
just wonderful. most plants develop some flowers at strange times of the year. only orchids do it very rarely.
it seems to be a common survival strategy called 'bet hedging'. even if the "right" and most promising time for a particular plant to flower might be lets say may, it will produce some flowers in lets say february or even november. thei might survive and the seeds will be ripe in a time without competition from the same sp. in places like Malta without frost thats more common than lets say in Finnland. no good flowering under 2m of snow.
i am personally pleased whenever i see one of them out of season.
it seems to be a common survival strategy called 'bet hedging'. even if the "right" and most promising time for a particular plant to flower might be lets say may, it will produce some flowers in lets say february or even november. thei might survive and the seeds will be ripe in a time without competition from the same sp. in places like Malta without frost thats more common than lets say in Finnland. no good flowering under 2m of snow.
i am personally pleased whenever i see one of them out of season.
Do you also notice something else unusual and interesting - Undoubtedly related to insect pollination.
This flower is PINK in reality. But in the photo it looks almost VIOLET.
It also looks violet in Weber's book, and I had then thought that the difference was due to printing processes.
But now when I viewed the pics I myself took, it was the first thing that I noted, the change in colour!
It seems that the camera sees certain wavelengths that the human eye does not, maybe some UV (?) and these wavelengths are highly reflected by the Cistus petals.
I am thinking it is related to pollination in the sense that other animals see different wavelenghts to ourselves, and I had seen once a programme about how bees, etc, even if they may not see "colour" can see other wavelengths thus flowers may appear to stand out all the same, and therefore stand a better chance of being pollinated.
RB
This flower is PINK in reality. But in the photo it looks almost VIOLET.
It also looks violet in Weber's book, and I had then thought that the difference was due to printing processes.
But now when I viewed the pics I myself took, it was the first thing that I noted, the change in colour!
It seems that the camera sees certain wavelengths that the human eye does not, maybe some UV (?) and these wavelengths are highly reflected by the Cistus petals.
I am thinking it is related to pollination in the sense that other animals see different wavelenghts to ourselves, and I had seen once a programme about how bees, etc, even if they may not see "colour" can see other wavelengths thus flowers may appear to stand out all the same, and therefore stand a better chance of being pollinated.
RB
I think it is related to camera colour reproduction. In the shade, the Auto White Balance might not be 100% accurate and the most difficult part of colour reproduction for any camera is the violet-Indigo-purple end (the shortest wavelengths of visible light)
For example my Cistus pic in the profile (taken Dec 8th 2005) have a good colour representation - purple pink.
http://www.maltawildplants.com/CIST/Cis ... ticus.html
For example my Cistus pic in the profile (taken Dec 8th 2005) have a good colour representation - purple pink.
http://www.maltawildplants.com/CIST/Cis ... ticus.html
well, pinkish to blue colours are often a problem for cameras. But i think our administrator is the specialist on that issue. maybe he even has an idea how to take pictures that show the flowers UV colours.
as for bees, they definitely see colours, they even can see UV. thus, for example some Fumana flowers which to humans will appear pure yellow, for bees they have UV spots leading them to the centre. because of the UV they could even see pink Cistus as violet but im not sure since all that seing millions of colours which are actually a mix of only 3 or case of bees 4 colours does not mainly happen as physical processes in the eye but as mental work in the humans or bees brain.
as for bees, they definitely see colours, they even can see UV. thus, for example some Fumana flowers which to humans will appear pure yellow, for bees they have UV spots leading them to the centre. because of the UV they could even see pink Cistus as violet but im not sure since all that seing millions of colours which are actually a mix of only 3 or case of bees 4 colours does not mainly happen as physical processes in the eye but as mental work in the humans or bees brain.
In the early phases of MaltaWildplants.com I was doing two research works, the colour change of flower extract with PH and UV photography, but that ended up taking 2 weeks to finish a profile, and the Lab managment that I used to work in at Valletta were not happy about my self experiments - they preferred us to chat or sleep in the staff room instead !!
I remember that Oxalis had rich UV reflection.
If I get funds, I might buy a UV chamber box and take some photos.
I remember that Oxalis had rich UV reflection.
If I get funds, I might buy a UV chamber box and take some photos.
