Mexican orange (Choisya ternata)

Mexican Orange - UV, Heesch, Netherlands Here's the Mexican Orange, in totally not orange, instead in UV.

I'll use this post to share some of my still quite limited understanding of UV. UV light, or UV radiation is light in the wavelength 1-400nm. The entirety of this big range is not visible to the human eye. Some of it does reach the human eye from the sun, yet our "lens" blocks it. Some animals can see parts of the UV range, such as bees.

The huge range from 1-400nm is divided into 3 categories, the only interesting category for photography and other consumer use is "near UV": 380–200 nm. Shorter wave lengths mainly have industrial and medical use and are highly dangerous to human skin and eyes.

Near UV in turn is further divided into sub categories, of which only "Long wave UV" is relevant for photography. Some lab people may play around with shorter wavelengths at home (in particular to photograph minerals), yet this too is highly dangerous.

Longwave is 320 to 400 nm, also called UV-A. This is our relevant photography range. It can be used for two distinct types of UV photography: Reflected UV photography or UV induced fluorescence photography.

Reflected UV photography (strongly) illuminates the subject with UV light, yet the subject may also be exposed to other wavelengths. So this can be done in daylight. Next, a filter is placed on the lens to block any light except UV light.

UV induced fluorescence photography exposes the subject to UV light and UV light only. In other words, it requires full darkness. In this darkness, you cannot see the actual illumination, as UV light itself is invisible. However, when doing this on a UV sensitive subject, the subject will absorb the UV light and emit excess energy (UV light contains more energy compared to longer wave lengths) in the form of light in the visible spectrum.

To put all this together, the above scene does not show UV light itself, it shows a subject absorbing it and emitting some of it back into the visible spectrum, in this case purple and yellow. Choisya ternata,Extreme Macro,Ultra Violet Light

Appearance

''Choisya ternata'' is an evergreen shrub, growing up to 3 m in height. Its leaves have three leaflets and are aromatic. The white flowers are scented, appearing in spring .

Mexican orange - Choisya ternata Plantentuin, Meise. Belgium,Choisya ternata,Geotagged,Mexican orange,Spring

Distribution

''Choisya ternata'' originates from Mexico. It is drought tolerant, preferring well drained soils.

Habitat

''Choisya ternata'' originates from Mexico. It is drought tolerant, preferring well drained soils.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Plantae
Division	Angiosperms
Class	Eudicots
Order	Sapindales
Family	Rutaceae
Genus	Choisya
Species	C. ternata

Photographed in
Belgium
Netherlands