Top Ten Floral UV-Signatures

[Andrea B.]

Many of us use flowers in testing how our various filters, lenses and cameras record UV. They are easily available, and many have well-known UV-signatures against which to test.

 

What is your favorite flower to use? Make some suggestions or construct your own Top 5 or Top 10 list. I'll try to summarize everything later in one grand list (if possible!)

 

This is just for fun, so I'll start us off with a couple of suggestions.

 

 

Classic Visible-yellow, UV-dark Central Bull's-eye

These would also win in the category of Most Useful for testing filters/lenses.

• Black-eyed Susan = Rudbeckia
  
• Sunflower = Helianthus or Heliopsis
  
• Dandelion = Taraxacum
  

Visible-yellow, UV-dark Central Bull's-eye Flower Which Is Most Widely Available

• in North America: Dandelion, but seasonal. Sunflower from Grocery/Florist.
  
• in Europe: Ficaria verna and Tussilago. Both in early spring.
  
• in Australia: ?
  
• around the world: ?
  
• add your own category because I don't mean to leave anyone out!
  

Best Flower from Florist or Grocery Store (which you can get anytime of year)

....useful because there is a "pattern".

• Peruvian Lilies (Alstromeria)
  
• Sunflowers (usually Helianthus, see above)
  

UV-dark Veined Pattern

Useful if you get bored with bull's-eyes. Easy to find in the summer.

• Brassicaceae family has several. Example: Barbarea vulgaris [Winter-cress]
  
• Oxalidaceae also. Example: Oxalis acetosella [Wood Sorrel]
  

Two False Colors

You could only get this under a broad-band UV-pass filter, I'm thinking.

My example is not widely available, however.

• Iris pseudacorus [Yellow Flag]: Another Example
  

Best Flower for Surface Texture Revealed by UV

• Roses. Yes, beautifully textured in UV. Example: Rosa sp. [striped Rose]
  

Let's hear your suggestions!

[Guest]

Just fyi - your link to Oxalidaceae is the same as the Brassicaceae link above it...

[Andrea B.]

Thanks! Fixed.

[Steven]

Ficaria verna [Lesser Celandine] (seasonal) are easy to find in Europe right now.

[bobfriedman]

Gazania..

 

http://www.pbase.com/bobfriedman/image/112562051/original.jpg

[Andy Perrin]

Two False Colors

 

I still like the golden chain tree (assuming that's what it is):

[Cadmium]

Thank you Andrea.

Spring. Norther hemisphere, March 19th to 21st.

Regardless of how much ice, snow, cold, and freezing we have endured through the winter months, most are always ready for an early Spring. I am.

[nfoto]

Silverweed Potentilla anserina or related species of this genus are top contenders in the competition for the best "bull's eye" pattern.

[Andrea B.]

Thanks everyone so far!

 

Lookiing for more comments. I will write them all up eventually. And provide some photo references. :D

 

 

Good wildflowers for spring?

Good wildflowers for summer?

Continent or country specific wildflowers?

Good flowers from grocery store or florist if not already mentioned above?

[ulf]

I like the Tussilago farfara (Colt's Foot) in the spring.

It is also interesting with different Bug stack filterings.

Especially the last one below.

 

This was the very first flower I tried to capture in UV with my Baader U and with S8612 + BG3- , and S8612 +UG5-stacks last spring.

The focus and white balance isn't that good, but it was my very first attempt.

 

 

Looking forward to the spring to revisit this flower.

Today it is -8.4C° outside.

[Cadmium]

Ulf, Wow, those are excellent! I especially like the BG3 stack (bottom shot). Very nice and interesting flower also!

[ulf]

Thank you Steve,

 

As a first attempt they are marginally OK, but I can do better.

The session was rushed as I had a deadline and I made mistakes.

 

I was out for IR photography and this was just a first test to see if my camera was able to handle UV-photography too.

At that time I hadn't found much that said a Canon EOS was suitable for that.

 

I got a too high ISO => noise.

 

Also the focus is wrong, especially in the Baader U shot.

I forgot to refocus to compensate for the different optical path length due to the thinner glass of this filter.

 

These pictures are partial crops from the original.

 

The BG3 stack shot is my favourite too.

[Adrian]

Andrea,

My own favourites are as follows (mainly from the UK or Europe):

 

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)

Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus)

Winter Aconite (Eranthis sp.)

Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica)

Beggarticks (Bidens sp.) Used in the UK for hanging basket displays. I use this as my standard "test" subject

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Evening Primrose (Oenothera sp.)

Sunflowers, Gazanias and Rudbeckia as are well known.

 

Can I also mention carnivorous plants, some of which (e.g Sarracenias) exhibit fascinating characteristics when shot with UVR.

 

Whilst on the subject of plants, can I also mention a few which have fluorescent characteristics:

 

4 O'clock Flower (Mirabilis jalapa) - fluorescent pollen

Hellebores also have fluorescent pollen

Various species of Nepenthes have fluorescent peristomes

Various fruits and molds also work well in UVF.

 

I have a selection of the above on my web site: www.imagingtheinvisible.com

 

Adrian