Pantone named “Ultra Violet”
its Color of the Year for 2018 and the National Association of Landscape
Professionals (NALP) predicts this shade will be prevalent in
the landscape this year in response.
While
this is great news for any who are passionate about purple, it also presents
perks for pollinators like bees.
Bees
have impressive eyesight and it was more than 100 years ago that Nobel
Prize-winning scientist Karl von Frisch proved they could see color.
Like
humans, bees have trichromatic vision, meaning they have three different
photoreceptors in the retina that distinguish three certain primary colors.
These primary colors are the basis for any color combination they see.
The
primary colors for humans are red, blue and green and all other color
combinations created from these three shades, but for bees, their primary
colors are blue, green and ultraviolet light.
Humans
can see more colors because they can see light in the wavelengths from around
400 to 700 nanometers (nm) spectrum while bees can see from the 300 to 600 nm
range. Ultraviolet light has a wavelength from 10nm to 400 nm, which means
although bees can’t see red, they make up for it by perceiving UV light, which
cannot be detected by the human eye.
They
can still see reddish hues such as yellow and orange, along with shades such as
blue-green, blue, violet and “bee’s purple,” which can be found as a
combination of yellow and ultraviolet light.
According
to Bee Culture, the
most likely colors to attract bees are purple, violet and blue.
A
study of nine bumblebee colonies in Germany found that those who favored purple
blooms were greatly rewarded for their preference.
“In
the area we studied, violet flowers produced the most nectar – far more than
the next most rewarding flower color (blue),” Dr. Nigel Raine from Queen Mary’s
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences told ScienceDaily.
“Inexperienced bees are known to have strong color preferences, so we
investigated whether the bumblebee colonies with a stronger preference for violet
flowers foraged more successfully in their local flora.”
Raine
found that the bumblebees developed their favorite color over time,
corresponding with the most nectar-rich flowers.
However,
this doesn’t mean red flowers are left out to dry. Thanks to ultraviolet
patterns on flowers that direct bees to where the nectar and pollen are stored,
bees are able to follow these UV bull’s-eyes straight to the sweet stuff,
regardless of the color of the petals.
There
have been many attempts to mimic a bee’s vision, and you can click here to see
examples of how flowers create UV targets for bees to find.
It
is believed that flowers that are dependent on attracting insect pollinators
evolved over time to have the distinctive ultraviolet color patterns to be
increasingly eye-catching to bees. Also, bees’ preference towards purple helped
increase their chance of survival to pass the trait on to its own offspring.
Some
hypothesize this is why many native plants tend to have purple blooms, such as
blazing star and coneflower. - By Jill Odom Total Landscape Care
