Trends in floral scent chemistry in pollination syndromes: floral scent composition in hummingbird-pollinated taxa

Knudsen, Jette,1961-Högskolan på Gotland,Institutionen för kultur, energi och miljö (author)

Trends in floral scent chemistry in pollination syndromes : floral scent composition in hummingbird-pollinated taxa

We studied an assemblage of 17 species of bird-pollinated Ecuadorian plants (from 14 angiosperm families), including taxa pollinated by short-billed (trochiline) and sickle-billed (hermit) hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are widely supposed to ignore fragrance while visiting flowers. We collected floral headspace odours in order to test the general prediction that specialist hummingbird-pollinated flowers are scentless. In nine out of 17 of these species we failed to detect any odours using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), whereas the remaining eight species produced trace levels of volatile compounds. Most of these odour compounds were of terpenoid or lipoxygenase derivation and are commonly emitted by vegetative as well as floral plant tissues. Further studies will be required to determine whether these weak odours attract alternative pollinators, repel enemies or represent vestiges of a scented ancestry.

Tollsten, LarsGöteborgs Universitet (author)
Groth, IngaGöteborgs Universitet (author)
Bergström, GunnarGöteborgs Universitet (author)
Raguso, RobertUniversity of South Carolina (author)
Högskolan på GotlandInstitutionen för kultur, energi och miljö (creator_code:org_t)

In:Botanical journal of the Linnean SocietyLondon : Academic Press146:2, s. 191-1990024-40741095-8339

By the author/editor: Knudsen, Jette, ...; Tollsten, Lars; Groth, Inga; Bergström, Gunna ...; Raguso, Robert

About the subject

NATURAL SCIENCES: NATURAL SCIENCES; and Biological Scien ...; and Microbiology

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