Hemimeris racemosa [Yellow-faces]

[nfoto]

Rørslett, B. 2015. Hemimeris racemosa (Houtt.)Merr. (Scrophulariaceae). Yellow-faces, Geelgesiggie. African flowers photographed in visible and ultraviolet light. http://www.ultraviol...meris-racemosa/

 

Hemimeris racemosa (Houtt.)Merr. (incl. Hemimeris montana L.fil.)

 

Plants found and photographed in the Kamiesberg area, near Kamieskroon, Northern Cape province, South Africa, at an elevation of 1050 m asl, 6 September 2015. The specimens were growing along a intermittent stream, in shade. They were identified as H. racemosa by having saccate, non-spurred flowers and ovate, toothed leaves.

 

 

Image reference: HEME_RAC_G1509066574_VIS

 

Visible light: Nikon Df, Voigtländer 125 mm f/2.5 APO-Lanthar lens, daylight.

 

Image reference: HEME_RAC_I1509062786_UV

 

Ultraviolet light: Nikon D3200, UV-Nikkor 105 mm f/4.5 lens, Baader u2" (Venus) filter (built-in), SB-140 flash.

 

The corolla of H. racemosa is densely covered with conical cells. In UV, these lead to a shimmering iridescence of the flower.

 

References:

http://www.ultraviol...-r%C3%B8rslett/

 

[ Published 18 November 2015]

[DaveO]

I see you are now in the same family as Eremophilia and there is certainly a resemblance in the UV image, I would be very interested to see if you find any which have dark-blue UV signatures. When South Africa and Australia were part of Gondwana Land they were separated by Antarctica but of course the climate was not frozen in those days (even I can't remember so far back).

 

Dave

[nfoto]

Coming up, Dave. It will take me weeks to post all these African species I documented on this trip. The Scrophulariaceae is one of the larger families in South Africa.