Seeing Red This Fall

Here at KSNS we have been getting seeds of a lot of the red-flowering and red-fruited species we carry back in stock. Western columbine, warrior’s plume, western thistle, wavyleaf paintbrush, Brown’s peony, red huckleberry, wax currant and more! For some of these species we have many packets available, while others we were only able to get a limited amount of seed, so they will sell out fast!

RED FLOWERS

The color red has a lot of cultural meaning and is used as a symbol for love, passion, and romance, as well as anger, war, danger, religion, spirituality, luck, good fortune and happiness. It is also the first primary color humans see as babies after black and white, and is one of the most vibrant colors humans see, due to its longer wavelength. Pigments of red have been documented in archeological evidence dating back to prehistoric times, and humans continue to use red to make an impact in many ways.

Most insects, on the other hand, don’t even have the photoreceptors in their eyes to see the color red. Humans see color on a spectrum from red to violet, but bees see on a spectrum of orange to ultraviolet — they have spectral sensitivities clustered near the ultraviolet, blue, and green regions of the spectrum.

Some insects only have two types of visual pigments, one pigment absorbs green and yellow light, and the other absorbs blue and ultraviolet color, and these insects are often unable to discriminate pure colors from mixtures of colors.

However, some insects like bees and many diurnal butterflies, have what is considered “true color vision,” because they have three visual pigments and can perceive a complete spectrum of colors, within their spectral sensitivity range, and can also see the difference between single colors and mixtures of colors, but the perception of ultraviolet color (non-spectral color) is really what sets them apart with their visual acuity. For instance, many flowers have evolved to have rings of ultraviolet color around the reproductive parts of the flower that are not visible to humans, but tell the bees exactly where they need to go. There is a lot more than meets the human eye! We cannot perceive all the color that many flowers display because we can’t see ultraviolet.

So what is the advantage of red flowers if many insects can’t see the color red?

Hummingbird pollination!

Unlike bees, hummingbirds see red even more clearly and vibrantly than humans do, due to a greater concentration of cone cells in the retinas of their eyes. Hummingbird eyes filter other colors (e.g. muting colors such as blue), making red hues brighter, and they can see ultraviolet colors as well. While hummingbirds will visit flowers of other colors with high nectar content, it is more opportunistic.

Meanwhile, flowers that are primarily pollinated by bees are rarely red because bees don’t see the color red; however, bees will still visit what looks simply like a red flower to humans, but it might also have some ultraviolet colors that we can’t perceive, but the bee can.

Conversely, many red flowers that have evolved to be pollinated by hummingbirds have long floral tubes that their long beaks can get into, but bee tongues are not long enough to reach the nectar; however, there are “nectar robber” bees that can chew holes at the base of the tube and get to the nectar that way, primarily without pollinating the flower.

The bottom line: Many pollinators don’t see red, so red flowers are primarily pollinated by hummingbirds that can, but some red flowers have ultraviolet colors that humans can’t see, that bees can see, and that is why we still sometimes observe bees utilizing red flowers. Whew! Insect color perception and flower color is a very fascinating, and complicated subject!

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Red Fruit, Berries & Drupes

Fall is the time for collecting fleshy fruited seeds — and many of them are also red! During the end of summer and early fall we have a mad dash to keep up with collecting and cleaning fleshy seeds before they dry out on the plant, get eaten by critters, or get moldy. We prioritize cleaning these perishable seeds first and foremost this time of year, but we’re starting to get caught up as less and less fruit, berries and drupes are available as fall progresses.

It’s been a bumper crop year for Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttalllii) seeds. This gorgeous spring-blooming shrub or small tree puts on clusters of drupes that have red flesh when the seeds ripen. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to find some seed clusters low enough to the ground that we can pull them directly off and into the collection bucket easily, but many times it requires a ladder to access them. We have a lot of Pacific dogwood on our land, so we don’t need to go very far to access it, as it is abundant in the canyon we live in, but we have to beat the critters to the seed too! We’ve been enjoying watching flickers dart in and out of the dogwoods as they nab some of these ripe, red seeds to eat! Pileated woodpeckers, grosbeaks and cedar waxwings also eat the red dogwood seeds.

Aquilegia formosa-Western columbine

Castilleja applegatei – Wavy leaf paintbrush

Cercis occidentalis-Western redbud

Cirsium occidentale – Western thistle

Fritillaria recurva-Scarlet fritillary

Paeonia brownii-Brown’s peony

Pedicularis densiflora-Warrior’s plume

Ribes roezlii-Sierra gooseberry

Ribes sanguineum-Red flowering currant

Sanicula bipinnatifida – Purple sanicle

Acer circinatum-Vine maple

Vaccinium parvifolium-Red huckleberry

Actaea rubra-Red baneberry

Streptopus amplexifolius-Claspleaf twistedstalk

Ribes cereum-Wax currant