As with nearly all living creatures, humans have always been attracted and intrigued by floral scents. Yet, while we have been manufacturing perfumes for at least 5000 years to serve a myriad of religious, sexual, and medicinal purposes, until very recently, the limitation of our olfactory faculty has greatly hindered our capacity to clearly and ob

Plant volatiles—compounds emitted from plant organs to interact with the surrounding environment—play essential roles in attracting pollinators and defending against herbivores and pathogenes, plant-plant signaling, and abiotic stress responses. Biology of Plant Volatiles, with contributions from leading international groups of distinguished scientists in the field, explores the major aspects of plant scent biology. Responding to new developments in the detection of the complex compound structures of volatiles, this book details the composition and biosynthesis of plant volatiles and their mode of emission. It explains the function and significance of volatiles for plants as well as insects and microbes whose interactions with plants are affected by these compounds. The content also explores the biotechnological and commercial potential for the manipulation of plant volatiles. Features: Combines widely scattered literature in a single volume for the first time, covering all important aspects of plant volatiles, from their chemical structures to their biosynthesis to their roles in the interactions of plants with their biotic and abiotic environment Takes an interdisciplinary approach, providing multilevel analysis from chemistry and genes to enzymology, cell biology, organismal biology and ecology Includes up-to-date methodologies in plant scent biology research, from molecular biology and enzymology to functional genomics This book will be a touchstone for future research on the many applications of plant volatiles and is aimed at plant biologists, entomologists, evolutionary biologists and researchers in the horticulture and perfume industries.

Pollination and Floral Ecology is a very comprehensive reference work to all aspects of pollination biology.

A unique account of the structure, biology and evolution of tropical flowering plants.

Important breakthroughs have recently been made in our understanding of the cognitive and sensory abilities of pollinators, such as how pollinators perceive, memorize, and react to floral signals and rewards; how they work flowers, move among inflorescences, and transport pollen. These new findings have obvious implications for the evolution of floral display and diversity, but most existing publications are scattered across a wide range of journals in very different research traditions. This book brings together outstanding scholars from many different fields of pollination biology, integrating the work of neuroethologists and evolutionary ecologists to present a multidisciplinary approach.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of mutualism origin, plant–pollinator specificity, mutualism stability, and reciprocal diversification. In particular, it focuses on the natural history and evolutionary history of the third example of obligate pollination mutualism, leafflower–leafflower moth association, which was discovered in the plant family Phyllanthaceae by the lead editor and then established by the editors and their coworkers as an ideal model system for studies of mutualism and the coevolutionary process. This work brings together the knowledge they have gained through an array of research conducted using different approaches, ranging from taxonomy, phylogenetics, ecology, and evolutionary biology to biogeography. Richly illustrated with numerous original color photographs, the volume consists of 13 chapters and is divided into three main parts: natural history, ecology, and evolution. It begins by showcasing numerous examples of plant–animal interactions and their origins to guide readers in the world of leafflowers and their pollinators. The immense diversity of Phyllanthaceae and pollinator moths is then explored, and in the following 7 chapters mutualism is discussed from a range of ecological and evolutionary points of view. The final chapter presents a review of the evolution and variety of obligate pollination mutualisms. This book offers researchers and students in the field of ecology, botany, evolutionary biology, pollination biology, entomology, and tropical biology fascinating insights into why such a costly pollination system has evolved and why Phyllanthaceae is so diverse despite the inconspicuousness of their flowers.

An exploration of the roles flowers play in the production of our foods, spices, medicines, and perfumes reveals their origins, myriad shapes, colors, textures and scents, bizarre sex lives, and how humans-- and the natural world-- relate and depend upon them.

Studies in floral biology are largely concerned with how flowers function to promote pollination and mating. The role of pollination in governing mating patterns in plant populations inextricably links the evolution of pollination and mating systems. Despite the close functional link between pollination and mating, research conducted for most of this century on these two fundamental aspects of plant reproduction has taken quite separate courses. This has resulted in suprisingly little cross-fertilization between the fields of pollination biology on the one hand and plant mating-system studies on the other. The separation of the two areas has largely resulted from the different backgrounds and approaches adopted by workers in these fields. Most pollination studies have been ecological in nature with a strong emphasis on field research and until recently few workers considered how the mechanics of pollen dispersal might influence mating patterns and individual plant fitness. In contrast, work on plant mating patterns has often been conducted in an ecological vacuum largely devoid of information on the environmental and demographic context in which mating occurs. Mating-system research has been dominated by population genetic and theoretical perspectives with surprisingly little consideration given to the proximate ecological factors responsible for causing a particular pattern of mating to occur.