What a Bee Sees

Dandelion 

I came across an interesting fact while listening to science lectures on the Internet last week, and I thought it was cool enough to pass along here.
Pollinating insects, like bees, see colors differently than we humans do. They are able to see beyond what we call the visible spectrum, into the shorter ultraviolet wavelengths. While that's interesting it's not really all that fascinating until you couple that fact with the next one I am going to pass along.
It turns out that beyond the "normal" colors we humans see, many flowers have patterns and colors that are only visible in the ultraviolet. And most of the color in the ultraviolet creates a "bulls eye" around the center of the flower where the reproductive parts and pollen are located.

Crocus

I am not sure whether flowers evolved this coloration to attract pollinators or whether the pollinators developed the ability to see the color to find food, but either way one influenced the other to the point of shaping it's evolutionary history! The discovery of such relationships are like finding two pieces of a puzzle and putting them together. It's not the whole picture of evolution, but you still get that "Ah ha!" feeling when the two pieces fit perfectly together. Insights like these are amazing examples of the often weird interconnectedness that all living things have with each other. Life is something isn't it? And knowing that I am a part of this puzzle, that I exist in a world that has such things as invisible colors, it just makes me feel....freaking awesome!
(all photos borrowed from www.naturfotograf.com)

Primrose