Analysis of reflectance spectra of common ornamental flowers in relation to its potential attractiveness to bees using visible light reflectance spectroscopy

Abstract

The reflectance spectra of common ornamental flowers (gumamela, rose, dendrobium orchid and kalachuchi) were constructed and analyzed using their second derivative plots using visible light reflectance spectroscopy. The peak reflectance values for each flower were determined and were compared to the wavelength reception of bees (340 nm, 430 nm and 540 nm). Flowers that have reflectance peak values matching or close to the above mentioned wavelengths were said to be potentially receptive to bee or attractive to bees in other words. It was found that gumamela, rose and kalachuchi possess wavelengths matching (or relatively close) to the bees' reception wavelengths, and thus were considered to be potentially attractive to bees. Dendrobium orchid was found to possess relatively low reflectance peaks in the receptive region of bees, but previous studies showed that they employ other techniques such as the deception technique, which attracts bees.