Odour and colour polymorphism in the food-deceptive orchid Dactylorhiza romana

Abstract

The food deceptive orchid, Dactylorhiza romana (Sebastiani) Soo exhibits a colour polymorphism with yellow, red, and intermediate orange morphs. In this study we tested if floral odour differed among the three distinct colour morphs. We identified 23 odour compounds in D. romana, and all of them occurred in the three colour morphs. Monoterpenes dominated the floral scent. On the basis of Euclidean distances of relative amounts of compounds, yellow morphs were closer to each other than to orange or red morphs. Differentiation of the morphs was mainly due to linalool and benzaldehyde. Linalool occurred in low relative amounts in the yellow morphs, but in high amounts in some of the red individuals, whereas benzaldehyde occurred in higher relative amounts in yellow morphs. Linalool and benzaldehyde are known to be important signal-substances in plant-insect communication, however, it remains to be shown whether insects can discriminate between flower morphs on the basis of the here shown odour differences.