INTRODUCTION - Nectaries and Nectar - page 11

5 ORGANIZATION OF THIS VOLUME

Two major volumes on nectar and nectary biology were published in 1983
and are long out of print: The biology of nectaries (Bentley & Elias, 1983)
and Handbook of experimental pollination biology (Jones & Little, 1983).
The publication of Nectary biology (Bahadur, 1998) was delayed and the
volume is not widely available. Endress' (1994b) topic, Diversity and evolu-
tionary biology of tropical flowers , first considers the nectary per se, from a
morphological point of view, and subsequently from a systematic point of
view in families where it is present. It also provides some historical back-

ground to the study of flowers and nectaries. The natural history of

pollination by Proctor et al. (1996) is an update of an earlier edition and a
detailed account of pollination biology. The publication of three topics deal-
ing with the practical aspects of pollination biology (Dafni, 1992; Dafni et al.,
this field in recent 2005; Kearns & Inouye, 1993) indicates strong interest in

years. The topical theme of specialization versus generalization in pollina-

tion systems has led to a new multi-author volume (Waser & Ollerton,

2006). Volume 238 (2003) of Plant Systematics and Evolution , entitled

Nectary and nectar: from biology to biotechnology and edited by A.R. Davis,

M. Hesse, M. Nepi and E. Pacini, is devoted to papers presented at a meeting

held in Montalcino in Tuscany, Italy, in 2002. In the journal Ecology 2004,

vol. 85 there is a special section devoted to papers on Community and

Evolutionary Ecology of Nectar , with contributions on both floral and extrafloral
nectaries from different ecological points of view.

The present topic, Nectaries and nectar , emphasizes both the plant side
of the interaction (nectary structure and function) and the animal viewpoint
(nectar composition and consumption). The remaining seven chapters are
organized into four conceptual areas, which are discussed in more detail be-
low.

Nectary systematics (Chapter 2)

This chapter reviews the distribution of floral nectaries throughout the angio-
sperms in a systematic context. Nectar-secreting tissues show great variety in
their location and histological structure, previously surveyed in dicots and
monocots respectively by Smets (1986) and Smets et al. (2000). Plant diver-
sity is often linked to adaptive radiation of pollination systems, and the
variety of nectar-secreting tissues is to some extent associated with the vary-
ing morphology and behaviour of pollinators. However, there is also a strong
relationship with specific plant phylogenetic lineages, and hence to plant