Quick comment:  Yes, it is fascinating to look at the UV patterns produced
by flowers.  And *some* people are able to see these patterns with their
naked eye.  When asked to describe what it looks like, they will say that
it is an entirely different color, as different as green is from blue.
And these few people who have this added visual perception are recipients
of older cataract operations before they started to use UV opaque lense
material.  Humans are actually capable of seeing UV, except that our
lenses are opaque to it.  Early cataract patients recieved non-apaque
lenses until it was realized that their retinas was getting "sun burned"
from the lack of UV protection.  FWIW
 
        Rich
 
 
On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Lisa M. Buttonow wrote:
> When i was much younger, in a class somewhere, i saw pictures of flowers
> taken with somekind of UV filter.  Different species of flowers had
> different patterns when viewed with UV.  So a human sees solid yellow
> flowers, but bees see patterned yellow flowers. The thought at the time
> was that, flowering plants used this as a strategy to keep a bee
> interested in its species, creating a greater chance that its individual
> pollen will rub off on a flower of the same species.  Supposedly in a
> garden full of different cucurbits, one can see an individual bee
> visiting all the cucumber blossoms then all the squash etc.
>