Floral scents in butterfly-pollinated plants: possible convergence in chemical composition

Abstract

The study explores whether or not there are convergent patterns in floral scent composition among plant species that completely or partially rely on butterflies for pollination. Floral scent compounds were analysed from 22 flowering butterfly-pollinated plant species, representing 13 families which originate mainly from temperate North Europe but also from tropical and temperate America. Scents were collected using the dynamic headspace adsorption method and identified with coupled gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In total, 217 floral scent compounds were identified, with the number per species ranging from 8 to 65. The major emerging pattern is the occurrence of certain compounds emitted exclusively by the flowers of many of the investigated species in major amounts – the benzenoids phenylacetaldehyde and 2-phenylethanol, the monoterpenes linalool and linalool oxide (furanoid) I and II and the irregular terpene oxoisophorone. It is likely that these compounds serve as a signal to attract pollinating butterflies, and may have evolved in conjunction with the sensory capabilities of butterflies as a specific group of pollinators. While there is convergence in terms of the compounds sharing this function there has been a geographical divergence in terms of their relative abundance. The predominance (in terms of both numbers and relative amount) of benzenoids in many of the scent blends of the European temperate species and of linalool and its derivatives in those of the American species constitute two discernible groups among these plants. © 2002. The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002, 140, 129–153.