Nelson's Flowers & Nursery

Business name:

Nelson's Flowers & Nursery

Address:

235 N. Second Ave

City:

Okanogan

State:

Washington

Zip Code:

98840

Phone number:

(509) 422-2660

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Express you love, friendship, thanks, support - or all of the above - with beautiful flowers & gifts!

Florists in Okanogan WA and Nearby Cities

Flowers and Gifts News

Mosquitoes are drawn to flowers as much as people — and now scientists know why - UW News

The blunt-leaf orchid, or Platanthera obtusata, grows in cool, high-latitude climates across the Northern Hemisphere. From field stations in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington state, Riffell’s team verified past research showing that local mosquitoes pollinate this species, but not its close relatives that grow in the same habitat. When researchers covered the flowers with bags — depriving the mosquitoes of a visual cue for the flower — the mosquitoes would still land on the bagged flowers and attempt to feed through the canvas. Orchid scent obviously attracted the mosquitoes. To find out why, Riffell’s team turned to the individual chemicals that make up the blunt-leaf orchid’s scent. “We often describe ‘scent’ as if it’s one thing — like the scent of a flower, or the scent of a person,” said Riffell. “Scent is actually a complex combination of chemicals — the scent of a rose consists of more than 300 — and mosquitoes can detect the individual types of chemicals that make up a scent.” img class="size-medium wp-image-65747" src="https://s3-us...

Mosquitoes Are Drawn to Flowers As Much as People — Now Scientists Finally Know Why - SciTechDaily

The blunt-leaf orchid, or Platanthera obtusata, grows in cool, high-latitude climates across the Northern Hemisphere. From field stations in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington state, Riffell’s team verified past research showing that local mosquitoes pollinate this species, but not its close relatives that grow in the same habitat. When researchers covered the flowers with bags — depriving the mosquitoes of a visual cue for the flower — the mosquitoes would still land on the bagged flowers and attempt to feed through the canvas. Orchid scent obviously attracted the mosquitoes. To find out why, Riffell’s team turned to the individual chemicals that make up the blunt-leaf orchid’s scent. “We often describe ‘scent’ as if it’s one thing — like the scent of a flower, or the scent of a person,” said Riffell. “Scent is actually a complex combination of chemicals — the scent of a rose consists of more than 300 — and mosquitoes can detect the individual types of chemicals that make up a scent.” Riffell describes the blunt-leaf orchid’s scent as a grassy or musky odor, while its close relatives have a sweeter fragrance. The team used gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy to identify dozens of chemicals in the scents of the Platanthera species. Compared to its relatives, the blunt-leaf orchid’s scent contained high amounts of a compound called nonanal, and smaller amounts of another chemical, lilac aldehyde. Using a gas chromatogram to separate the individual chemicals that make up a flower’s scent while simultaneously recording electrical activity from a mosquito’s antenna to see which chemicals stimulate the mosquito’s antenna. Credit: Kiley Riffell Riffell’s team also recorded the electrical activity in mosquito antennae, which detect scents. Both nonanal and lilac aldehyde stimulated antennae of mosquitoes that are native to the blunt-leaf orchid’s habitat. But these compounds also stimulated the antennae of mosquitoes from other regions, including ...