# Floral Scent Variation in the Heterostylous Species _Gelsemium sempervirens_
## 3 Discussion
Future research is needed to determine how floral scent varies temporally, if _G. sempervirens_ is a predominantly diurnal- or nocturnal-pollinated plant species, and which pollinators contribute to the seed set. The significant difference in overall scent profile among geographic locations indicates there were population differences independent of whether or not the plants within the population were considered cultivated or wild. Both cultivated and wild populations that were sampled from six different locations in SC had similar relative abundances of benzenoid and terpenoid compounds within the scent profiles of their flowers. However, the fatty acid derivatives were more prevalent in the cultivated populations than in the wild populations (Figure 3). An analysis of all the compounds also indicated no significant difference in compound presence between cultivated and wild populations. However, there were significant differences in the overall scent profile among geographic locations (C1, C2, C3, W1, W2, W3) nested within population types, indicating the possibility of within site differences. More research needs to occur to determine if there are maternal effects, ecological effects (soil pH, temperature, moisture, etc), or geographical differences across the populations. Significant differences in floral traits of _G. sempervirens_ collected from wild and cultivated sites were found by [PERSON] et al. [28], with wider corolla tubes in wild sites and longer corolla tubes in cultivated sites. Corolla tube length and width were also found to be positively correlated with the age of the cultivated site with older sites having longer corolla tubes. The age of the cultivated site in this study was not taken into account, but this is an aspect that can be examined in future studies. [PERSON] et al. [28] also found several floral traits were phenotypically and genotypically correlated, with cultivated and wild plants producing similar results in a common garden experiment as listed above. Other studies have indicated that scent profile does vary based on temperature [38; 39], light [39; 40], time [7], pollination status [7], and geographic location [7]. L styled flowers were significantly stronger scented than S styled flowers. The stronger scent of L styled flowers is consistent with the hypothesis that the smaller flowers will produce a stronger scent to attract pollinators or to defend against florivory and larceny, but further research will be necessary to distinguish between these options [27]. There were also significant differences between compound classes across the style morphs of this plant. Benzenoids represent a larger proportion of the overall scent in L flowers while terpenoids and fatty acid derivatives represented a larger proportion of the overall scent profile of S flowers. Yeast associated scent compounds were equally likely in both population types and style morphs. These differences held up even when the overall scent profile was analyzed and style morph was nested within geographic location nested within population type, indicating strong differences in style morphs for complete scent profile (Figure 4). This is particularly clear in the NMDS analysis where the plot indicates a clear separation between the scent profiles of some of the S flowers and the majority of the L flowers. These results indicate that many of the S flowers have very dissimilar scent profiles to the L flowers, regardless of which population the flowers were sampled from. Of the 81 identified compounds, 26 of the benzenoids, terpenoids, and fatty acid derivative compounds were significantly different for relative amounts across L and S flowers (see compounds with an * in Table 1). All 8 benzenoid compounds that were significantly different across the style morphs were higher in the L flowers than the S flowers.