Flower colour variation, pollination biology and population ecology in Dactylorhiza sambucina

Abstract

The dimorph D. sambucina grow only yellow in Norway, and comes in a range of colour gradients from yellow to red elsewhere in Europe. DNA analysis of leaf tissue could not map population structures at Norwegian locations due to unreproducible AFLP’s retrieved from external laboratory. Germination experiments were not successful due to incorrect protocol or laboratory procedures, but seeds survived and developed into seedlings. Colour density of conspecifics seem to be more important than the colour and colour proportions of co-flowering species in regenerating the monochrome Norwegian populations. In Norway Bombus lapidarius is the main pollinator and D. sambucina x D. fuchsii hybrids are found intermixed in these populations.