Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK.
Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK.
Planta. 2024 Jun 3;260(1):15. doi: 10.1007/s00425-024-04403-4.
One of seven Solanum taxa studied displayed associations between pollen presence and floral scent composition and volume, suggesting buzz-pollinated plants rarely use scent as an honest cue for foraging pollinators. Floral scent influences the recruitment, learning, and behaviour of floral visitors. Variation in floral scent can provide information on the amount of reward available or whether a flower has been visited recently and may be particularly important in species with visually concealed rewards. In many buzz-pollinated flowers, tubular anthers opening via small apical pores (poricidal anthers) visually conceal pollen and appear similar regardless of pollen quantity within the anther. We investigated whether pollen removal changes floral scent composition and emission rate in seven taxa of buzz-pollinated Solanum (Solanaceae). We found that pollen removal reduced both the overall emission of floral scent and the emission of specific compounds (linalool and farnesol) in S. lumholtzianum. Our findings suggest that in six out of seven buzz-pollinated taxa studied here, floral scent could not be used as a signal by visitors as it does not contain information on pollen availability.
在研究的七个茄属植物类群中，有一个类群显示出花粉存在与花香成分和数量之间的关联，这表明很少有嗡嗡叫授粉的植物将气味用作觅食传粉者的诚实线索。花香影响着访花者的招募、学习和行为。花香的变化可以提供有关可用奖励数量的信息，或者花是否最近被访问过，并且在具有视觉隐蔽奖励的物种中可能尤为重要。在许多嗡嗡叫授粉的花朵中，管状花药通过小的顶端孔（poricidal 花药）开放，花粉视觉上被隐藏，并且无论花药内的花粉数量如何，外观都相似。我们研究了在七个嗡嗡叫授粉的茄属（茄科）植物类群中，花粉去除是否会改变花香的组成和排放率。我们发现，在 S. lumholtzianum 中，花粉去除减少了花香的整体排放和特定化合物（芳樟醇和法呢醇）的排放。我们的研究结果表明，在所研究的七个嗡嗡叫授粉类群中，有六个类群的花香不能被访客用作信号，因为它不包含有关花粉可用性的信息。
