Biodiv Sci ›› 2012, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (3): 308-316.  DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1003.2012.09025

Special Issue: 传粉生物学:理论探讨与初步实践 传粉生物学

• Methodologies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Quantitative studies of floral color and floral scent

Qingliang Li1, Xiaokai Ma2,3, Jin Cheng1,*(), Yibo Luo2   

  1. 1 College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083
    2 State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093
    3 Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049
  • Received:2012-01-17 Accepted:2012-04-11 Online:2012-05-20 Published:2012-05-09
  • Contact: Jin Cheng

Abstract:

Floral color and scent are two important components of floral design. Although previous studies on floral design have been mostly descriptive. The exploration on their quantitative studies can provide key evidence to learn pollination mechanisms. Our study focuses on recently developed methods for the quantitative measurement of floral color and floral scent. We introduce three floral color measurement and plotting methods, including color chart, colorimeter and spectrometer. Dynamic headspace collection-adsorption, adsorption-solvent desorption and solid phase micro-extraction are the three frequently-used floral scent collection methods and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and zNose are usually used in floral scent analysis. Lastly, gas chromatography with electroantennographic detector, Y-tube olfactometer and flight cage experiment can help us to evaluate insect behavior.

Key words: floral design, floral color, floral scent, quantitative study, insect behavior experiments