Floral anatomy of Plumeria rubra L. (Apocynaceae) with emphasis on the osmophores and chemical composition of the exhaled perfume

• Grant number: 17/15135-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Plant Morphology
• Principal Investigator: Diego Demarco
• Grantee: Kimberly Yanaguidaira de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Apocynaceae is a family that presents a wide diversity of floral glands and several types of secretion related to different mechanisms of pollen dispersion. Among the various floral glands, osmophores are the structures that present the least number of anatomical works, being almost unknown in this group. Thus, the present project aims to structurally characterize the flowers of Plumeria rubra in relation to the strategies of pollinator attraction with emphasis in the osmophores. This study will also chemically identify the compounds that make up the floral perfume throughout the pollination period using a gas chromatographer coupled to a mass spectrometer. The chemical investigation will be associated to the histochemical study to determine the composition of the floral perfume and its mechanism of production. The bibliographic survey located only two anatomical works of this gland for the family. Given the scarcity of data, this study aims to elucidate the mechanism of attraction of visitors in a species that, a priori, does not offer any resource to the pollinator, being pollinated by deceipt. Google Tradutor para empresas: Google Toolkit de tradução para apps Tradutor de si (AU)