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Impact of floral traits on the reproductive success of epiphytic and terrestrial tropical orchids

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Abstract

We investigated the relationship between habit, population size, floral traits and natural fruit set levels of 23 tropical orchid species of south-east Bangladesh. We showed that epiphytic orchids had lower fruit set levels than terrestrial species and that habit explained much of the variation in floral traits among the orchids. We compared our results with data from 76 other species occurring in the study area and hypothesize that a suite of floral and population characteristics present in tropical orchids combine in epiphytes to reduce their reproductive success. Characteristics which, in addition to their habit, are associated with low reproductive success are small population size, small inflorescences, non-sectile pollinia and self-incompatibility. Several of these characteristics were phylogenetically conserved and we predict that epiphytes might therefore generally have lower fruit set levels than recorded in terrestrial species. Nectar rewards are uncommon in tropical orchids and nectarless species have displays of larger flowers, which may represent an adaptation to increase pollinator attraction, although other rewards such as oils, waxes and pseudo pollen may replace nectar. We suggest that, like many temperate orchids, a high proportion of tropical orchids may lack floral rewards and be pollinated by deceit.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by a 3-year British Council research fellowship for M. K. H. as part of a DFID Aberdeen University–Chittagong University Biodiversity Project. The authors thank the Royal Society and the University of Aberdeen for additional financial support for this work. We gratefully acknowledge help from Professor M. Atiqur Rahman of Chittagong University, Dr Jeffrey Wood at RBG Kew for confirmation of identification of the orchid species, Dr Mike Swaine (University of Aberdeen) for statistical analyses and Dr Emily Swaine for help with the study on phylogenetic constraints. Dr Ruth Neiland (University of St Andrews), Emily Swaine and two anonymous referees kindly provided helpful comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Botany, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, 4331, Bangladesh

    Mohammed K. Huda

  2. School of Biological Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, UK

    Christopher C. Wilcock

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  1. Mohammed K. Huda
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  2. Christopher C. Wilcock
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Correspondence to Christopher C. Wilcock.

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Communicated by Florian Schiestl.

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Huda, M.K., Wilcock, C.C. Impact of floral traits on the reproductive success of epiphytic and terrestrial tropical orchids. Oecologia 154, 731–741 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0870-4

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