Serapias Lingua Research Articles

Ecological perspectives on female and male reproductive success with competition in two Serapias species.

The deceptive strategies by which orchids are pollinated and how these are capable of attracting pollinators remain understudied with regard to their implications for plant fitness. Despite their ecological importance, limited investigations have been conducted on sexual deception and shelter mimicry in orchid species, making this a compelling avenue in orchid biology research. To expand the knowledge of these reproductive mechanisms, we studied the pollination of Serapias lingua and S. parviflora in co-occurring and isolated sites in the Balearic Islands (Spain), further accentuated by the presence of a hybrid, indicating shared pollinators. We employed bagging and hand pollination experiments to examine the reproductive biology of the two species. Furthermore, we evaluated the influence of phenotypical and ecological factors on reproductive success, including biometric measurements, reproductive performance and neighbourhood diversity (co-flowering and pollinator communities). Reproductive mechanisms between these two orchid species exhibit substantial disparities. Serapias lingua relies primarily on insect-mediated pollination, while S. parviflora demonstrates self-reproduction capacity. Although events of open pollination are rare, hybridization occurs predominantly when S. lingua is the pollen donor. Fruit set in S. parviflora was positively correlated with plant height, while in S. lingua it was negatively associated with flower size. The coexistence of the two species positively affected pollinium removal in S. parviflora, but did not exert an influence on reproductive traits in S. lingua. Overall, biometric parameters were diminished in isolated compared with co-occurring sites. At the community level, the increased diversity of co-flowering species in the vicinity exhibited an inhibitory effect on pollinium removal in S. parviflora. Under a context of pollinator loss or phenological mismatch between pollinator presence and flowering, the selfing capacity of S. parviflora would guarantee reproduction whereas S. lingua survival would be compromised. Furthers studies are needed to assess the effects of phenotypical and ecological factors on reproductive success of S. lingua in pollinator-decline scenarios.

Comparative Cytogenetic of the 36-Chromosomes Genera of Orchidinae Subtribe (Orchidaceae) in the Mediterranean Region: A Summary and New Data.

This article provides a summary of the current knowledge on the cytogenetics of four genera, which are all composed of 36 chromosomes, within the Orchidinae subtribe (Orchidaceae). Previous classical studies have revealed differences in karyomorphology among these genera, indicating genomic diversity. The current study includes an analysis of the current knowledge with an update of the karyotype of 47 species with 36 chromosomes from the genera Anacamptis, Serapias, Himantoglossum, and Ophrys. The study discusses comparisons of karyotypes among these genera that used traditional techniques as well as karyotype asymmetry relationships with various asymmetry indices. Additionally, the study reports new findings on polyploidy in Anacamptis pyramidalis and Serapias lingua, which were observed through karyotype and meiotic metaphase analyses in EMC. Moreover, the study detected B chromosomes for the first time in A. papilionacea and A. palustris. The article also describes the use of fluorescent in situ hybridization in some specimens of A. papilionacea and A. collina to locate different sites of the 18S-5.8S-25S rDNA and 5S rDNA ribosomal complexes on chromosomes. The information derived from these cytogenetic analyses was used to refine the classification of these orchids and identify evolutionary relationships among different species and genera.

Evaluation of salep obtained from different wild orchid species of Turkey and their use in Maras type ice cream

The study was aimed to investigate the effects of different salep samples on Maras type ice cream quality characteristics. For this purpose, 10 different wild orchid species, a significant number of which have not been studied before, were collected from different regions of Turkey. pH, moisture, total protein, ash, glucomannan, starch contents, and rheological properties of salep obtained from their tubers were evaluated. Then salep (group 1) and salep-stabilizer-emulsifier (group 2) were used in Maras type ice cream production. Especially glucomannan contents of salep affected important quality parameters (phase separation, hardness, rheological, melting, and sensory properties) of the product. The data obtained from group 2 and multidimensional scaling analysis showed that those parameters were improved with the use of stabilizer-emulsifier. The results of the study provide significant information on the conservation of plant diversity in terms of wild orchids, as well as ensuring the sustainability of Maras type ice cream. Novelty impact statement Salep obtained from Serapias lingua, Orchis mascula, Dactylorhiza majalis, Ophrys sphegodes, and Habenaria repens wild orchid species is more appropriate in Maras type ice cream production. Ophrys apifera and Himantoglossum hircinum species should not be collected from the nature considering their suitability for Maras type ice cream. Replacing some of the salep amount used in the production of Maras type ice cream with a stabilizer-emulsifier mixture will not only protect the sustainability of the product but also protect the plant diversity in terms of wild orchids.

The composition of the aroma of Serapias orchids in Basilicata (Southern Italy)

The SPME-GC-MS analysis of the aroma components of Serapias cordigera, Serapias cordigera subsp. lucana, Serapias vomeracea, Serapias lingua, and Serapias parviflora were reported. The relevant components of the scent of Serapias cordigera were α-amorphene, ethyl oleate, heneicosane, heptadecane, 2-heptadecanone, ethyl elaidate, pentadecane, octadecane, farnesylacetaldehyde, nonadecane, and ethyl stearate. Serapias cordigera subsp. lucana gave α-amorphene, pentadecane, propyl undecanoate, heptadecane, ethyl elaidate and oleate, ethyl stearate, and 8-heptadecene. Serapias vomeracea showed pentadecane, 5-nonadecene, 1-nonadecene, 3-heptadecene, benzyl benzoate, 2-undecanone, and octadecane. Serapias lingua showed the presence of heptadecane, 3-heptadecene, isopropyl myristate, pentadecane, nonadecane, isopropyl palmitate, octadecane, and benzyl benzoate. Serapias parviflora gave pentadecane, pentadecene, hexadecane, heptadecane, nonadecane, and ethyl elaidate.

Notas taxonómicas y distributivas sobre <em>Serapias lingua</em> subsp. <em>tunetana</em> (Orchidaceae), una rara espècie endémica de Túnez

Serapias lingua subsp. tunetana, una rara orquídea endémica con área de distribución restringida en Túnez, al norte de Túnez, ha sido redescubierta lejos de su localidad tipo después de 22 años. Desde su primer hallazgo en 1996 y su descripción publicada en 2005, la subespecie no se había encontrado nuevamente y se presume que se extinguió o fue identificada erróneamente. En este trabajo se proporciona una descripción detallada de la subespecie que justifica una enmienda a su descripción, y se aporta asimismo un mapa de distribución y varias fotografías. Se listan las principales afinidades de la subsp. tunetana con los táxones más estrechamente relacionados dentro del grupo de S. lingua que se distribuyen en Túnez. Se evalúa su estado de conservación atendiendo a los criterios y categorías de la UICN.

Functional differentiation in pollination processes among floral traits in Serapias species (Orchidaceae).

Floral displays, influencing attractiveness to insects, increase the number of pollinator visits and the efficiency of each visit in terms of pollen exchange and thus affect the plant reproductive success. Here, we conducted an in situ manipulation experiment to investigate whether the floral modifications affect reproductive success in natural orchid populations of Serapias lingua and Serapias vomeracea. We estimated male and female reproductive success of three treatment groups, disassembly of floral tube, cutting of lip, and painting of the callus surface, in terms of pollinaria removed/deposited and fruit production. Results revealed that phenotypic modification had opposite effects on reproductive success of two examine species. Indeed, reproductive success was significantly increased by the detached of the petals and sepals, and decreased, due to callus painting and lip removal, in S. lingua. On the contrary, unmanipulated plants of S. vomeracea showed significantly higher value of pollinaria removed and deposited and fruit set than manipulated ones. The differences between S. lingua and S. vomeracea agree to the different pollination strategy of examined species. S. vomeracea shows shelter imitation strategy, and thus, the disassembly of tunnel‐like corolla does not allow the insects to use the flower as a refuge, while S. lingua is a sexually deceptive orchid and therefore the opening of the flower made more visible callus (visible at a greater distance) increasing the pollinators attraction. This study provides evidence that pollinators were largely sensitive to the experimental modification of the flower phenotype, which is consistent with the presence of significant selection on individual floral characters. Our experimental investigations of the effects of variation in display on pollinator visitation provide insights into the evolution of floral morphology in orchid with shelter imitation strategy.

Effects of population structure on pollen flow, clonality rates and reproductive success in fragmented Serapias lingua populations

BackgroundFragmentation of habitats by roads, railroads, fields, buildings and other human activities can affect population size, pollination success, sexual and asexual reproduction specially in plants showing pollinator limitation, such as Mediterranean orchids. In this study, we assessed pollen flow, selfing rates, vegetative reproduction and female reproductive success and their correlations with habitat characters in nine fragmented subpopulations of Serapias lingua.To improve understanding of population structure effects on plant biology, we examined genetic differentiation among populations, pollen flow, selfing rates and clonal reproduction using nuclear microsatellite markers.ResultsSmaller populations showed a significant heterozygote deficit occurred at all five nuclear microsatellite loci, the coefficient of genetic differentiation among populations was 0.053 and pairwise FST was significantly correlated with the geographical distance between populations. Paternity analysis of seeds showed that most pollen flow occurred within a population and there was a positive correlation between percentage of received pollen and distance between populations.The fruit production rate varied between 5.10 % and 20.30 % and increased with increasing population size, while the percentage of viable seeds (78-85 %) did not differ significantly among populations. The extent of clonality together with the clonal and sexual reproductive strategies varied greatly among the nine populations and correlated with the habitats where they occur. The small, isolated populations tended to have high clonal diversity and low fruit production, whereas the large populations with little disturbance were prone to have reductions in clonal growth and increased sexual reproduction.ConclusionsWe found that clonality offers an advantage in small and isolated populations of S. lingua, where clones may have a greater ability to persist than sexually reproducing individuals.

A cytological study of four SicilianSerapias(Orchidaceae)

Cytological analysis of four Serapias L. (Orchidaceae), of which two are Sicilian endemics, is carried out. In particular, the endemic S. intermedia subsp. hyblaea shows a triploid chromosome complement with 2n = 3x = 54, representing natural nothotaxa arising from a hybridization process between supposed parental S. vomeracea (2n = 2x = 36) and Serapias lingua (2n = 4x = 72). For each of them the C-heterochromatin distribution, using Giemsa C-banding and karyotypes, was examined. The other endemic taxon (S. orientalis subsp. siciliensis) is characterized by a diploid chromosome number 2n = 2x = 36, of which the C-heterochromatin distribution is examined as well. The taxonomical relationships among these taxa are discussed in relation to the literature data.

Impact of primer choice on characterization of orchid mycorrhizal communities using 454 pyrosequencing

Although the number of studies investigating mycorrhizal associations in orchids has increased in recent years, the fungal communities associating with orchids and how they differ between species and sites remain unclear. Recent research has indicated that individual orchid plants may associate with several fungi concurrently, implying that to study mycorrhizal associations in orchids the fungal community should be assessed, rather than the presence of individual dominant fungal species or strains. High-throughput sequencing methods, such as 454 pyrosequencing, are increasingly used as the primary tool for such analyses. However, many studies combine universal primers from previous phylogenetic or ecological studies to generate amplicons suitable for 454 pyrosequencing without first critically evaluating their performance, potentially resulting in biased fungal community descriptions. Here, following in silico primer analysis we evaluated the performance of different combinations of existing PCR primers to characterize orchid mycorrhizal communities using 454 pyrosequencing by analysis of both an artificially assembled community of mycorrhizal fungi isolated from diverse orchid species and root samples from three different orchid species (Anacamptis morio, Ophrys tenthredinifera and Serapias lingua). Our results indicate that primer pairs ITS3/ITS4OF and ITS86F/ITS4, targeting the internal transcribed spacer-2 (ITS-2) region, outperformed other tested primer pairs in terms of number of reads, number of operational taxonomic units recovered from the artificial community and number of different orchid mycorrhizal associating families detected in the orchid samples. Additionally, we show the complementary specificity of both primer pairs, making them highly suitable for tandem use when studying the diversity of orchid mycorrhizal communities.

Comparative analysis of floral scents in four sympatric species of Serapias L. (Orchidaceae): clues on their pollination strategies

Orchid species of Mediterranean genus Serapias often live in sympatry, exhibit similar floral morphology, bloom in the same period and share the same pollinators. Previous studies on Serapias species have ascertained that reproductive isolation is based on pre-pollination barriers, that secretory cells and trichomes are typically distributed on the floral labellum and that flowers produce aliphatic compounds. In this study we compare the floral scent composition of four widespread, co-occurring Serapias species, namely Serapias lingua, Serapias parviflora, Serapias vomeracea and Serapias cordigera. Our goals are to assess if differences in floral scent may act as interspecific pre-pollination barriers and if these olfactory signals may be involved in the pollination strategy of Serapias. We find that all the selected species produce C20–C29 alkanes and alkenes and, in addition, have detected the presence in S. cordigera of large amounts of oleate and stearate ethyl ester. Our findings help to clarify that the sympatric Serapias species have slightly different floral scent signatures that may account for their relevant role as pre-pollination barriers. Therefore, the pollination strategy of Serapias relies not only on the tubular shape of their floral corolla but also on the production of olfactory signals that may lure potential pollinators and even assure a sufficient degree of pollinator fidelity.

Genetic diversity, population structure and phylogenetic inference among Italian Orchids of the Serapias genus assessed by AFLP molecular markers

The means by which new species arise remain a fundamental question in the Orchid family evolution. Even if the Orchid-pollinator interactions are highly specific, events of cross-hybridization in Serapias are possible and represent a central issue of the plant's evolutionary biology. Italian Orchids have a wide variety of pollination systems and highly diverse floral traits, considered as some of the main tools for activating the speciation processes. The assess of diversity in Serapias taxa and eventual phylogenetic relationships among Serapias lingua, S. parviflora, S. vomeracea, S. apulica, S. nurrica, S. neglecta, S. cordigera, S. politisii, and some putative inter-specific hybrids were investigated at the DNA level by AFLP markers. The present molecular study on Serapias populations (1) confirms some previous finding, (2) opens new hypotheses on the possible evolutionary and taxonomic relationships existing among the Serapias species, and (3) gives indications about the real consistence of hybrid individuals in a genus characterized by a relevant gene flow.

Comparative floral micromorphology in four sympatric species of Serapias (Orchidaceae)

A great variety of colours, shapes, scents, energy-rich rewards and other floral traits form an integrated system that increases pollination efficiency or reduces pollen loss. Flowers lacking energetic rewards possess a more elaborate morphology to ensure co-specific pollination. Despite the prevalence of deceptive species among Euro-Mediterranean orchids, the study of their floral micromorphology is still in its infancy. In this work, we examine the floral micromorphology of four sympatric species of the widespread Mediterranean genus Serapias. Electron microscopy (scanning, transmission) was performed on flowers of four sympatric species of the deceptive genus Serapias, the widespread S. cordigera, S. lingua, S. parviflora and S. vomeracea. Each species has a characteristic combination of specialized, secretory epidermal cells and trichomes on the labellum and, to a lesser extent, the petals. Serapias lingua is highly specialized in that it produces olfactory signals and has two types of trichome with secretory apical cells, one of which is also present in S. parviflora. In addition to striated, conical secretory cells, S. cordigera and S. vomeracea also have characteristic, atypical secretory trichomes with bilobulate or dome-like protuberances. The labellar micromorphology of S. lingua and S. parviflora is adapted for scent production, whereas S. vomeracea and S. cordigera possess trichomes that may also provide visual and/or tactile cues. Owing to the combined effect of the specific floral fragrance and labellar micromorphology in pollinator selection, the pollination ecology of Serapias spp. is even more specialized than previously thought. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 169, 714–724.

Evolution of sexual mimicry in the orchid subtribe orchidinae: the role of preadaptations in the attraction of male bees as pollinators.

BackgroundWithin the astonishing diversity of orchid pollination systems, sexual deception is one of the most stunning. An example is the genus Ophrys, where plants attract male bees as pollinators by mimicking female mating signals. Unsaturated hydrocarbons (alkenes) are often the key signal for this chemical mimicry. Here we investigate the evolution of these key compounds within Orchidinae by mapping their production in flowers of selected species onto their estimated phylogeny.ResultsWe found that alkenes, at least in trace amounts, were present in 18 of 20 investigated species together representing 10 genera. Thus, the reconstruction of ancestral state for alkene-production showed that this is a primitive character state in Ophrys, and can be interpreted as a preadaptation for the evolution of sexual deception. Four of the investigated species, namely Ophrys sphegodes, Serapias lingua, S. cordigera, and Anacamptis papilionacea, that are pollinated primarily by male bees, produced significantly larger amounts and a greater number of different alkenes than the species pollinated either primarily by female bees or other insects.ConclusionWe suggest that high amounts of alkenes evolved for the attraction of primarily male bees as pollinators by sensory exploitation, and discuss possible driving forces for the evolution of pollination by male bees.

SERAPIAS LINGUA

Curtis's Botanical MagazineVolume 3, Issue 1 p. 22-25 SERAPIAS LINGUA First published: February 1986 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8748.1986.tb00287.xAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume3, Issue1February 1986Pages 22-25 RelatedInformation

A New Italian Orchid

THE enclosed photograph represents, I believe, a species of Italian orchid which has not before been discovered. M. H. Correvon, who is, I suppose, the greatest living-authority on the European orchids, considers it “seems to be out of the way of species known”. When first I found it, I believed it to be Serapias triloba, but, having studied various authorities, I have since come to the conclusion that I was wrong. They all agree that the lip of triloba is crenulated, but in my specimen there is no sign of that Triloba is considered to be a hybrid between Serapias lingua and Orchis papilionacea; although the ground was covered with the former, I could not find a vestige of the latter in the whole of that district.