Figure 1.

Diagram depicting a hypothetical flower whose color is the result of angle dependent and independent colors. The perceived appearance of the angle dependent colors depends on the optical phenomena producing them and view angle which is a combination of the inclination angle along the y-axis (ϕ, red arrow) and the orientation angle along the x-axis (θ, blue arrow). In this particular example, one of the angle dependent colors is a mirror-like reflectance only visible at a particular inclination angle (top right quadrant). The second angle dependent color is produced by a simple diffraction effect where the intensity of a given reflected color changes with angle (bottom left quadrant) here represented by the graded color. The third color is produced by radiation reflected by the pigment which produces a solid, diffuse color angle independent from view point (solid blue color). Depending on the particular approach angle, an insect pollinator will perceive different aspects of the angle dependent component of the color pattern (question marks). However, the appearance of the diffuse pigment color will remain the same independent from view point.