Abstract
How do plants with structurally complex flowers promote effective pollination? From the pollinator's perspective, complex flowers can be reimagined as mechanical puzzles that require the manipulation of a 3D object in search of a concealed reward. 1 The spatial partitioning of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) within flowers may help flower-naive pollinators to successfully complete such puzzles, thereby increasing their foraging proficiency and, from the plant's perspective, promoting flower constancy and pollination efficiency. 2 , 3 Here, we construct "chemosensory roadmaps" for Impatiens capensis and I. pallida , two North American plants pollinated by Bombus impatiens bumblebees. Although many VOCs are known to elicit olfactory responses, 4 the presence of unique compounds in floral nectar, 5 coupled with reports of inexperienced bees probing different flower parts as they learn how to manipulate flowers, 6 suggest that VOCs might also elicit gustatory responses. Accordingly, we found that bumblebees showed no differential responses to VOCs when encountered as odorants but showed highly differential responses to the same VOCs when ingested with sugar rewards. VOCs present in nectar had agreeable flavors, whereas VOCs of other floral tissues such as nectar spurs were avoided. These findings suggest that VOC partitioning in Impatiens functions as a gustatory preference gradient that encourages legitimate pollination and potentially discourages nectar robbing by bumblebee visitors. Our findings highlight the non-olfactory functions of floral VOCs as flavors or contact chemical stimuli and their potential to structure plant-pollinator networks and filter their interactions with other organisms, including larcenists and other non-pollinating visitors.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Bumblebees did not respond differentially to floral volatiles as odorants.
- Taxon
- Impatiens capensis and I. pallida
Impatiens pallida
Impatiens capensise1 - Outcome
- responses to VOCse0
- Direction
- no differential responsese0
BombusOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“bumblebees showed no differential responses to VOCs when encountered as odorants”
t0“Spatial partitioning of floral volatiles provides a “chemosensory roadmap” for bumblebee pollinators”
e1“Impatiens capensis and I. pallida”
Claim · model-written summary
Bumblebees showed highly differential responses when floral volatiles were ingested with sugar rewards.
- Taxon
- Impatiens capensis and I. pallidaImpatiens pallidaImpatiens capensise1
- Outcome
- responses to the same VOCse0
- Direction
- highly differentiale0
- Qualifier
- ingested with sugar rewardse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“showed highly differential responses to the same VOCs when ingested with sugar rewards”
t0“Spatial partitioning of floral volatiles provides a “chemosensory roadmap” for bumblebee pollinators”
e1“Impatiens capensis and I. pallida”
Claim · model-written summary
Nectar volatiles had agreeable flavors for bumblebees.
- Taxon
- Impatiens capensis and I. pallidaImpatiens pallidaImpatiens capensise1
- Organ / stage
- nectare0
- Outcome
- agreeable flavorse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“VOCs present in nectar had agreeable flavors”
t0“Spatial partitioning of floral volatiles provides a “chemosensory roadmap” for bumblebee pollinators”
e1“Impatiens capensis and I. pallida”
Claim · model-written summary
Bumblebees avoided volatiles from other floral tissues, including nectar spurs.
- Taxon
- Impatiens capensis and I. pallidaImpatiens pallidaImpatiens capensise1
- Organ / stage
- nectar spurse0
- Outcome
- VOCs of other floral tissuese0
- Direction
- avoidede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“VOCs of other floral tissues such as nectar spurs were avoided”
t0“Spatial partitioning of floral volatiles provides a “chemosensory roadmap” for bumblebee pollinators”
e1“Impatiens capensis and I. pallida”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors infer that volatile partitioning forms a gustatory gradient encouraging legitimate pollination.
- Taxon
- Impatiens capensis and I. pallidaImpatiens pallidaImpatiens capensise1
- Outcome
- legitimate pollinatione0
- Qualifier
- gustatory preference gradiente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“These findings suggest that VOC partitioning in Impatiens functions as a gustatory preference gradient that encourages legitimate pollination”
t0“Spatial partitioning of floral volatiles provides a “chemosensory roadmap” for bumblebee pollinators”
e1“Impatiens capensis and I. pallida”