role of scent in Arisaema pollination

[Susanne Renner]

Hi Jai,

You asked:
"do Arisaemas use odours to attract pollinators?
Are the elaborate appendiges on some species (eg, A. speciosum) something
for the pollinators to climb onto?"

The answer to both questions is yes.  The fungus gnats that pollinate
Arisaema in the wild use scent to find their matig and oviposition
sites.  Details can be found in

Vogel, S. 1990. The Role of Scent Glands in Pollination.  Transl. of
S. Vogel's 1963 German
original, with an introduction by S. S. Renner and a new
index to scientific
names.  Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 203 pp.
Vogel, S., and J. Martens. 2000a. A survey of the function of the
lethal kettle traps of Arisaema (Araceae), with
records of pollinating fungus gnats from Nepal. Bot. J. Linn.
Soc. 133: 61-100.
Vogel, S., and J. Martens.. 2000b. Die tödlichen Kesselfallen von
Arisaema (Araceae). Linzer Biol. Beitr. 32: 715-716.

Susanne
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.science.uu.nl/pipermail/arisaema-l/attachments/20021115/2fc708f1/attachment.html