Floral scent

Floral scent, or flower scent, is composed of all the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or aroma compounds, emitted by floral tissue (e.g. flower petals). Other names for floral scent include, aroma, fragrance, floral odour or perfume. Flower scent of most flowering plant species encompasses a diversity of VOCs, sometimes up to several hundred different compounds. The primary functions of floral scent are to deter herbivores and especially folivorous insects (see Plant defense against herbivory), and to attract pollinators. Floral scent is one of the most important communication channels mediating plant-pollinator interactions, along with visual cues (flower color, shape, etc.). Flower visitors such as insects and bats detect floral scents thanks to chemoreceptors of variable specificity to a specific VOC. The fixation of a VOC on a chemoreceptor triggers the activation of an antennal glomerulus, further projecting on an olfactory receptor neuron and finally triggering a behavioral response after processing the information (see also Olfaction, Insect olfaction). The simultaneous perception of various VOCs may cause the activation of several glomeruli, but the output signal may not be additive due to synergistic or antagonistic mechanisms linked with inter-neuronal activity. Therefore, the perception of a VOC within a floral blend may trigger a different behavioral response than when perceived isolated. Similarly, the output signal is not proportional to the amount of VOCs, with some VOCs in low amounts in the floral blend having major effects on pollinator behavior. A good characterization of floral scent, both qualitative and quantitative, is necessary to understand and potentially predict flower visitors' behavior. Flower visitors use floral scents to detect, recognize and locate their host species and even discriminate among flowers of the same plant. This is made possible by the high specificity of floral scent, where both diversity of VOCs and their relative amount may characterize the flowering species, an individual plant, a flower of the plant, and the distance of the plume from the source.