Orchid pollination biology

L Anders Nilsson

doi:10.1016/0169-5347(92)90170-G

Orchid pollination biology

Trends Ecol Evol. 1992 Aug;7(8):255-9. doi: 10.1016/0169-5347(92)90170-G.

Author

L Anders Nilsson¹

Affiliation

¹ Anders Nilsson is at the Dept of Systematic Botany, PO Box 54J, S-751 2J Uppsala, Sweden.

PMID: 21236024
DOI: 10.1016/0169-5347(92)90170-G

Abstract

Orchids display many unsurpassed floral specializations, as both rewarders and frauds in their interaction with animal pollinators. Accumulating evidence indicates that their floral evolution is driven by pollinator traits and that expenditure for maximized sexual reproduction is parcelled out over their lifetimes in strategies for coping with pollinator and resource limitations. Recent advances in orchid pollination biology center mainly on floral evolutionary processes, pseudocopulation and other deceptive pollination systems, and flower and fruit production in relation to costs of sexual reproduction.