Two Darwin on the Pollination of Orchis: What He Taught Us and What We Can Tell Him Today

When Darwin explained the function of orchid flowers, he used Orchis species as model systems (Chapter 1). The authors follow studies of these flowers since Darwin’s second edition (1877), recording changes in how these orchids are classified and how concepts of pollination changed from rewarding to varying modes of deception. In fact, the flowers Darwin examined do not reward their pollinators with nectar (see also Chapters 3-5, 7, 9, 10) and the evolution of these species is considered by examining various hypotheses tested in several European field sites.