floral and vegetative cues in oilsecreting and nonoilsecreting lysimachia species background and aims unrelated plants pollinated by the same group or guild of animals typically evolve similar floral cues due to pollinatormediated selection related plant species however may possess similar cues either as a result of pollinatormediated selection or as a result of sharing a common ancestor that possessed the same cues or traits in this study visual and olfactory floral cues in lysimachia species exhibiting different pollination strategies were analysed and compared and the importance of pollinators and phylogeny on the evolution of these floral cues was determined for comparison cues of vegetative material were examined where pollinator selection would not be expectedmethods floral and vegetative scents and colours in floral oil and nonfloral oilsecreting lysimachia species were studied by chemical and spectrophotometric analyses respectively compared between oil and nonoilsecreting species and analysed by phylogenetically controlled methodskey results vegetative and floral scent was species specific and variability in floral but not vegetative scent was lower in oil compared with nonoil species overall oil species did not differ in their floral or vegetative scent from nonoil species however a correlation was found between oil secretion and six floral scent constituents specific to oil species whereas the presence of four other floral compounds can be explained by phylogeny four of the five analysed oil species had beegreen flowers and the pattern of occurrence of this colour correlated with oil secretion nonoil species had different floral colours the colour of leaves was similar among all species studiedconclusions evidence was found for correlated evolution between secretion of floral oils and floral but not vegetative visual and olfactory cues the cues correlating with oil secretion were probably selected by macropis bees the specialized pollinators of oilsecreting lysimachia species and may have evolved in order to attract these bees