• The future impact of climate change and a warmer world is a matter of great concern. We therefore aimed to evaluate the effects of temperature on pollen viability and fruit set of Mediterranean orchids.
• The in vitro and controlled pollination experiments were performed to evaluate the ability of pollinia stored at lower and higher temperatures to germinate and produce fruits and seeds containing viable embryos.
• In all of the examined orchids, pollen stored at −20 °C remained fully viable for up to 3 years, reducing its percentage germination from year 4 onwards. Pollinia stored at higher temperatures had a drastic reduction in vitality after 2 days at 41–44 °C, while pollinia stored at 47–50 °C did not show any pollen tube growth.
• The different levels of pollen viability duration among the examined orchids can be related to their peculiar reproductive biology and pollination ecology. The germinability of pollinia stored at lower temperatures for long periods suggests that orchid pollinia can be conserved ex situ. In contrast, higher temperatures can have harmful effects on the vitality of pollen and consequently on reproductive success of the plants. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the effects of global change on orchid pollen, and on pollen ability to tolerate, or not, higher air temperatures. Although vegetative reproduction allows orchids to survive a few consecutive warm years, higher temperatures for several consecutive years can have dramatic effects on reproductive success of orchids.

中文翻译：

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欧洲地中海兰花在不同储存条件下的花粉生存力：气候变化的可能影响。

• 气候变化和世界变暖对未来的影响令人极为关注。因此，我们旨在评估温度对地中海兰花花粉生存能力和坐果的影响。
• 在体外和控制授粉实验来评价花粉的贮存在较低和较高的温度下萌发产生果实和种子含有活的胚胎的能力和。
• 在所有接受检查的兰花中，在-20°C下储存的花粉最多可保持三年生存，从第四年开始降低其发芽百分比。在较高温度下储存的花粉在41–44°C下放置2天后活力急剧下降，而在47–50°C下储存的花粉没有显示出任何花粉管生长。
• 被检查兰花之间花粉生存力持续时间的不同水平可能与其独特的生殖生物学和授粉生态有关。在较低温度下长期保存的花粉的可发芽性表明兰花花粉可以在异地保存。相反，较高的温度会对花粉的活力产生有害影响，并因此对植物的繁殖成功产生不利影响。据我们所知，这是第一份证明全球变化对兰花花粉以及花粉耐受或不耐受较高气温的能力的影响的报告。尽管无性繁殖使兰花能够连续几个温暖的年生存，但连续数年较高的温度会对兰花的生殖成功产生巨大影响。