Mechanisms and evolution of deceptive pollination in orchids

A review of orchid pollination by deception: how common it is, which forms it takes — generalised food deception, mimicry of specific rewarding flowers, brood-site deception, sexual deception — and what maintains it evolutionarily given that deceived pollinators learn.

Studied in

Orchidaceae

Sample size

review of deceptive pollination systems across the family

Roughly a third of orchid species offer no reward. Generalised food deception is the commonest form and sexual deception the most specific, involving chemical mimicry of insect sex pheromones. Deceptive species receive fewer visits than rewarding ones but achieve higher rates of outcrossing and lower rates of self-pollination, because deceived pollinators leave and travel further.

• The proportion offering no reward is an estimate extrapolated from studied genera.
• Sexually deceptive systems are heavily over-represented in the literature relative to their frequency.
• Outcrossing advantages are measured over short periods relative to orchid lifespans.

• Orchids

  Roughly a third of orchid species pay their pollinators nothing at all