Donegal Wildlife: Late purple

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Late purple

Three late flowers from high bog fringes:

Devilsbit Scabious:

Marsh Thistle:

And Knapweed:

I wonder if it's a coincidence that they're all purple.

5 comments:

Gill said...: Those are superb portrait shots - don't tell me you finally got a shaft of sunshine?

No, I don't think it's a coincidence at all that they're all purple: throughout the year flowers tend to come in waves of all-white, all-yellow, all-purple - well almost! My guess is they are pollinated by the same group of insects, that happen to see best in that part of the spectrum; this may of course be affected by light levels changing through the year.; 25 November 2009 at 13:05
Stuart said...: No sunshine. Those were taken in very poor light and massaged with Photoshop. The Scabious is a composite picure made from 2 exposures: one where the front florets were in focus and a second where the furthest florets were in focus. The two images were then 'healed' together , again using photoshop.

Most certainly, the purple flowers are of a colour that attracts pollinators: when they are in season (about July to September) they are well visited by bumblebees and hoverflies.

I was musing more about the predominance of the purple colour now that most pollinators are gone for the year. One of the ideas I considered was that of visibility in poor light (draw any remaining stragglers in from distance).; 25 November 2009 at 14:18
Yoke, said...: I like your reasoning.
Another purple one in flower (here) is Red Clover, Trifolium pratense.

The Devilsbit scabious were in flower here last month, and mostly blue. (although I must admit the blue ones were the ones I saw early October in Glengarriff Woods, and the purple ones I saw round Halloween at the Bantry Bay coast,
what it is in the purple colour I do not know, but I guess that the shape of flower also says something of how to survive autumnal storms?
The late Oxe-eye daisies here don't even spread/open the petals anymore, because of the weather.

Great photos of all the 3 subjects.; 26 November 2009 at 11:29
Gill said...: "The two images were then 'healed' together , again using photoshop." cunning plan - never tried that.

"I was musing more about the predominance of the purple colour now that most pollinators are gone for the year."
I suspect that it's partly just that these flowers already "know" to be purple - it would be even more extraordinary if they changed colour later in the season - but fascinating :-)

As for the visibility in poor light, you may well be right, remembering that insects see in a very different spectrum from us - lots of UV, which blue-purple flowers may well excite. My guess is they look very bright in UV, like some white flowers.; 26 November 2009 at 11:58
Neil said...: Nice photos; 17 December 2009 at 23:18

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