Sonkoly et al. (2016) Journal of Ecology

Sonkoly J., E. Vojtkó A., Tökölyi J., Török P., Sramkó G., Illyés Z., Molnár V. A. (2016): Higher seed number compensates for lower fruit-set in deceptive orchids. – Journal of Ecology DOI 10.1111/1365-2745.12511


Abstract
1. Floral deception is widespread in orchids, with more than one-third of the species being pollinated this way. The evolutionary success of deceptive orchids is puzzling, as species employing this strategy are thought to have low reproductive success (less flowers yielding fruits) because of low pollination rates. However, direct measurements of total seed production in orchids – which is a better measure of reproductive success – are scarce due to the extremely small size of their seeds.
 

2. Here, we quantified seed numbers in 1015 fruits belonging to 48 orchid species from the Pannonian ecoregion (central Europe) and obtained fruit set and thousand-seed weight data for these species from the literature. We used phylogenetic comparative methods to test the hypothesis that deceptive species should compensate for their lower fruit set by having either more flowers, larger seeds or more seeds in a fruit.
 

3. Similarly to previous studies, we found that deceptive orchids have substantially lower fruits-set than nectar-rewarding ones. Also, we found that deceptive species have more seeds in a fruit but not more flowers or larger seeds compared to nectar-rewarding ones. Based on our results, deceptive species compensate for their lower fruit set by having higher seed numbers per fruit. As a consequence, their seed numbers per shoot do not differ from that of nectar-rewarding ones.

4. Together with other benefits of deceptive pollination (e.g. lower energy expenditure due to the lack of nectar production and higher genetic variability due to decreased probability of geitonogamous pollination), our results can explain why deceptive strategies are so widespread in the orchid family.

5. Synthesis. Our results indicate that deceptive orchids can compensate for their lower fruit set by having more (but not larger) seeds in a fruit than rewarding species. These findings highlight possible ways in which plants can increase their reproductive success in face of pollinator limitation. We emphasize that fruit set in itself is an inappropriate measure of the reproductive success of orchids – the total number of seeds per shoot is a much better approximation.


Keywords
deception, nectar reward, Orchidaceae, phylogenetic comparative methods, pollination, reproductive ecology, reproductive success, seed mass, seed number, thousand-seed weight

Löki et al. (2015) Willdenowia

Löki V., Tökölyi J., Süveges K., Lovas-Kiss Á., Hürkan K., Sramkó G. & Molnár V. A. (2015): The orchid flora of Turkish graveyards: a comprehensive survey. Willdenowia 45(2): 231–243.

Abstract
Graveyards are widely known among orchidologists as finding places of several orchid species in Turkey, including some very rare and localised ones. Graveyards provide places that are less strongly affected by landscape-altering human activities than other habitats because of their special cultural roles and religious privileges. In this study we performed a comprehensive survey of Turkish graveyards as orchid habitats. In total, 300 graveyards were studied in 30 provinces of Turkey in 2014. 84 orchid taxa (almost half of the known Turkish orchid flora) were found in 208 graveyards. From the studied provinces two south-southwestern provinces (Muğla, Antalya) emerged as peaks of species richness. This finding is in accordance with the overall biogeographical pattern of orchid diversity in Turkey. Our survey also contributes new floristic data to the orchid flora of Turkey. We documented salep collection in 10 graveyards from six provinces involving nine species. Altogether, we found orchids in 69% of the inspected graveyards, allowing us to conclude that the occurrence of orchids in Turkish graveyards is not a rare phenomenon. Thus, graveyards can be important refuges for orchids in the changing economical and agricultural circumstances of Turkey.

Keywords
Asia minor, cemetery, flora of Turkey, Near East, Orchidaceae, salep, SW Asia

Molnár V. et al. (2015) Applied Ecology and Environmental Research

Molnár V. A., Löki V., Takács A., Schmidt J., Tökölyi J., Bódis J. & Sramkó G. (2015): No evidence for historical declines in pollination success in Hungarian orchids. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research 13(4): 1097–1183.

Abstract
Pollination crisis (the decline of pollinator populations) is a global phenomenon which threatens biodiversity, human welfare and economy. The degree to which different plant populations/species are affected by pollination crisis is still unclear. In this study, long-term herbarium dataset was used to quantify the reproduction rate of Hungarian orchids between 1853 and 2008. We quantified fruit-set rate of 663 specimens belonging to 27 species. Data were available from an average of 10.3±9.3 localities, 76.5±43.2 years, and 23.4±25.6 specimens per species. Herbarium data were validated with field-observed data in case of the different pollination strategies. According to our results, the reproductive success of the vast majority of orchid species has not changed during time and pollination crisis is not apparent in Hungary at least until the end of the 20th century.

Keywords
herbaria, natural history collections, Orchidaceae, pollination crisis, pollination mode

Biró et al. (2015) Applied Ecology and Environmental Research

Biró É., Bódis J., Nagy T., Tökölyi J., Molnár V. A. (2015): Honeybee (Apis mellifera) mediated increased reproductive success of a rare deceptive orchid. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research 13(1): 181-192. DOI: 10.15666/aeer/1301_181192

Abstract
Honeybees are the most numerous and significant among insect pollinators, but despite their significance their potential role in increasing the reproductive success of threatened European orchids remains largely unexplored. In this study we aim to evaluate the effect of apiary proximity on the fructification rate of the rare and endangered Adriatic Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum adriaticum H. Baumann). To do so, first we quantified the reproductive success (fruit set) of the Adriatic Lizard Orchids in a Hungarian population in close proximity to a honeybee apiary at Nagytevel. Then we compared the reproductive success in this population to the reproductive success in 3 other Hungarian, 4 Croatian populations (observed during the same year, 2013) and further 4 populations from Hungary (studied in previous years, 1992–2011) with no apiaries in the close proximity of these. The realised 61.7 % fruit set at Nagytevel is the highest reproductive success ever recorded for this species. The importance of apiaries is further emphasised by the fact that the reproductive success of Lizard Orchid individuals decreased significantly with increasing distance from the apiary. Our results provide empirical support for the conservation importance of apiculture and suggests promising results for practical application of apiaries in the conservation of of deceptively pollinated orchids characterised by lower fruit set (e.g. Orchis, Anacamptis, Himantoglossum).

Keywords
apiculture, fruit set, Himantoglossum adriaticum, pollination crisis, Orchidaceae

Molnár V. et al. (2012) Journal of Ecology

Attila Molnár V, Jácint Tökölyi, Zsolt Végvári, Gábor Sramkó, József Sulyok, Zoltán Barta (2012): Pollination mode predicts phenological response to climate change in terrestrial orchids: a case study from central Europe. Journal of Ecology 100(5): 1141-1152.

PDF a Greenfo.hu oldalról

Summary

1. Herbarium collections contain long-term data for a wide range of taxa and provide unique opportunities to evaluate the importance of life-history components in driving species-specific responses to climate change. In this paper, we analyse the relationships between change in flowering dates and life-history traits within a phylogenetic framework. The study is based on an extensive data set of herbarium specimens of orchids collected in Hungary between 1837 and 2009, supplemented by recent field observations (1980–2011).
2. Of the 39 taxa investigated, 31 (79%) showed apparent advancement in mean flowering time. Among these, advancement was statistically significant in nine taxa. The rest (eight taxa) showed non-significant delays in flowering. Averaging across all taxa, flowering time advanced by 3 days (3.8% of flowering period) during the last 50 years compared with the period before 1960. In taxa showing significant advancement, flowering times advanced by 7.7 days (8.6% of the flowering period). The most extreme advancement was 13.9 days.
3. Multivariate models were used to evaluate ways in which life history may affect phenological responses to climate change. Pollination mode (i.e. deceptive vs. rewarding vs. autogamous), life span (i.e. short-lived vs. long-lived), biogeographical distribution type (i.e. Mediterranean vs. non-Mediterranean) and flowering time (i.e. mean date of blooming) emerged as important factors that influence changes in flowering through time. Phylogenetic relatedness did not predict phenological response. The strongest response was observed in orchids that flower relatively early in spring, exhibit an autogamous or deceptive pollination mechanism, have a long life span and possess a Mediterranean centre of distribution.
4. Synthesis. Our investigation demonstrates that the majority of Hungarian orchids have shifted their yearly mean flowering to earlier dates during the past 50 years. Certain life-history traits, but not phylogenetic relatedness, were found to be important in predicting climatic responsiveness in European terrestrial orchids.

Keywords
biological collections; flowering time; global change; herbarium specimens; life history; life span;  Orchidaceae; phenological shift; phylogenetic control; plant–climate interactions; pollinator