Perfume-loving bees push orchids to evolve flower shapes fast
Liu JW, Bogarín D, Pérez-Escobar OA, Pupulin F, Karremans AP, Serracín Z, Restrepo E, Xie Y, Ramírez SR.
Pollinators
The wild orchid diversity you might spot on a rainforest hike or in a specialty greenhouse traces back to male bees that collect floral scent instead of nectar, and that quirky relationship is one of nature's fastest known drivers of flower shape change.
Some orchids don't offer bees food, they offer perfume: male bees collect floral scents to attract mates, and in return they pollinate the flower. Scientists studied 178 orchid species and found that the ones using this scent-for-pollination deal evolve new flower shapes up to nearly 8 times faster than orchids using other strategies like nectar rewards or trickery. It's a striking example of how a pollinator's specific demands can reshape a whole group of plants over evolutionary time.
Key Findings
Analyzed floral morphology across 178 orchid species (about 5% of total diversity), spanning 86 genera and all 8 subtribes of the neotropical Cymbidieae radiation.
A multivariate evolutionary model fit to 67 species across 65 genera showed 'perfume flowers' pollinated by scent-collecting male euglossine bees evolve floral shape up to 7.8-fold faster than flowers using other reward or deceptive pollination strategies.
This is the first quantitative mapping of floral morphospace for this diverse orchid clade, linking pollinator specialization directly to accelerated rates of trait diversification.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Orchids pollinated by perfume-collecting male bees evolve new flower shapes up to 7.8 times faster than orchids relying on other pollination strategies, showing how a single picky pollinator relationship can supercharge plant diversity.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Exceptional diversification of floral form in a specialized pollination mutualism.
Floral morphology plays a key role in facilitating the mechanical fit between pollinators and plant reproductive organs, allowing for successful reproduction. In this study, we test how independent...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae, a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants, living in diverse habitats on every continent except Antarctica. The world's richest diversity of orchid...