The floral scents of Nymphaea subg. Hydrocallis (Nymphaeaceae), the New World night-blooming water lilies, and their relation with putative pollinators

Autor(en)

Artur Campos Dália Maia, Carla Teixeira de Lima, Daniela Maria do Amaral Ferraz Navarro, Marion Chartier, Ana Maria Giulietti, Isabel Cristina Machado

Abstrakt

Night-blooming water lilies are characterized by intense emission of floral VOCs. Their unique scent-oriented pollinators, cyclocephaline scarabs (Scarabaeidae, Cyclocephalini), are attracted to flowers that they use as reliable sources of food and as mating aggregation sites. Chemical analysis of floral scent samples of seven species of Nymphaea subg. Hydrocallis established remarkably simple fragrant blends, each of which was dominated by one or two prominent compounds that alone accounted for over 95% of total scent emission. A total of 22 VOCs were identified: aliphatics (9), C5-branched chain compounds (5) and aromatics (8). Anisole was the dominant constituent in the floral scents of Nymphaea amazonum subsp. amazonum, N. amazonum subsp. pedersenii and N. tenerinervia, whereas (methoxymethyl)benzene was the most abundant VOC in samples of N. lasiophylla and N. lingulata. Flowers of N. rudgeana and N. gardneriana emitted high amounts of methyl hexanoate and methyl 2-methylbutanoate. Comparisons of floral VOC composition including other day- and night-blooming species of Nymphaea and Victoria obtained from the literature evidenced disparities related to habitus. While flowers of day-blooming species mostly emit aromatic alcohols and ethers, nocturnal species are particularly rich in aromatic ethers, aliphatic esters and C5-branched chain esters. These findings strongly suggest that the floral scent composition within closely related Nymphaea and Victoria is linked to pollinator selection, and the putative role of floral VOCs in pollinator attractiveness is discussed.

Organisation(en)

Department für Botanik und Biodiversitätsforschung

Externe Organisation(en)

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Feira de Santana State University

Journal

Phytochemistry

Band

103

Seiten

67-75

Anzahl der Seiten

9

ISSN

0031-9422

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phytochem.2014.04.007

Publikationsdatum

07-2014

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

106008 Botanik

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Horticulture, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Plant Science

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/the-floral-scents-of-nymphaea-subg-hydrocallis-nymphaeaceae-the-new-world-nightblooming-water-lilies-and-their-relation-with-putative-pollinators(226de683-4632-49e6-b75e-868539922e74).html