Behavioral Responses to Floral Scent: Experimental Manipulations and the Interplay of Sensory Modalities

Abstract

Floral scent rarely functions alone and should be studied in the context of other sensory cues likely to be utilized by flower visitors. Ideally the importance of fragrance variation, like other floral traits, should be measured in the context of pollinator effectiveness, herbivore attack, and reproductive success using quantitative measures of natural selection or path analysis. One approach is floral deconstruction, the selective removal or modification of flower parts whose volatile emissions contrast with those of other floral organs. One hazard common to floral augmentation and reconstruction is the bias toward attraction; investigators do not frequently test for repellence. Synergistic interactions between visual and olfactory floral cues are prevalent across the spectrum of plant-pollinator interactions, from alpine tundra to tropical rainforests. The preceding examples highlight a degree of flexibility inherent to the information content of floral scent compounds and the neural organization of flower-visiting animals.