Floral scent, which consists of many volatile compounds, is an important pollinator attractant. Contrary to interspecific variation, the variations of floral scent among populations have been less well studied, especially in species-specific association between plants and pollinators. Each species of Ficus is generally pollinated by a single associated species of fig wasps (family Agaonidae), which develops inside the fig syconium. In many Ficus species, species-specific floral scent is an important factor in attracting their own pollinating wasps.

In this study, to investigate geographic variation in floral scents of Ficus species, we focused on two widely distributed species, F. septica and F. benguetensis. We analyzed the variations of floral scents of the two species growing in Japan and Taiwan by using adsorption-desorption headspace technique. The profiles of floral scent of F. septica were similar among four populations in Taiwan, while they differed between populations of Japan and Taiwan. In F. benguetensis, no variations of floral scent were observed among all populations.