EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
European Journal of Environmental Sciences nabízí původní recenzované články z oblasti environmentálních věd, mnohdy inter- a transdisciplinární povahy se zvláštním zřetelem na evropské problémy. Časopis rovněž publikuje kritické shrnující texty a přehledy situace v oblasti ochrany životního prostředí v konkrétních regionech a zemích. Zaměřuje se na širokou škálu témat, jako například přímé a nepřímé interakce živých a neživých složek životního prostředí, interakce s lidskou společností nebo environmentální udržitelnost.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Vol 3 No 2 (2013), 119–128

Presence, distribution and effect of white, pink and purple morphs on pollination in the orchid Orchis mascula

Bertrand Schatz, Roxane Delle-Vedove, Laurent Dormont

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23361964.2015.15
zveřejněno: 11. 12. 2013

Abstract

How floral polymorphism of flowering plants can be maintained in evolutionary time has long intrigued ecologists and is still debated. In particular, how floral colour polymorphism influences reproductive success is still poorly understood. Here, we investigated the case of Orchis mascula, a deceptive orchid species in which the presence of rare white-flowered individuals is known to increase the percentage pollination of co-occurring coloured morphs. In a brief review, we report all the orchid species for which rare colour morphs are recorded and show that colour polymorphism occurs in most orchid genera occurring in France. In this study, more than 20,000 individuals of O. mascula were surveyed and some rare clear pink morphs were recorded. The frequencies of white-flowered and clear pink-flowered individuals were 0.59% and 0.28%, respectively. These two rare-colour flowered individuals were not randomly distributed and restricted to a few populations. In addition, the presence of pink-flowered individuals and the use of experimental pink lures resulted in an increase in the percentage pollination of surrounding purple-flowered individuals, as previously shown for white-flowered individuals and white lures. These new observations favour kin selection as the means by which floral colour polymorphism is maintained in this species. We suggest conducting comparative studies of other species in order to evaluate the importance of this mechanism in orchid pollination and that of other plant families.

klíčová slova: floral colour polymorphism; Mediterranean orchids; pollination; pigment biosynthesis

Creative Commons License
Presence, distribution and effect of white, pink and purple morphs on pollination in the orchid Orchis mascula is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

210 x 297 mm
vychází: 2 x ročně
cena tištěného čísla: 150 Kč
ISSN: 1805-0174
E-ISSN: 2336-1964

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