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Tacca chantrieri is a species of flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae. It was first described in 1901 by Édouard André. [1] T. chantrieri is native to southeastern Asia. It is commonly known as the black bat flower due to its shape and coloring. [2] The bat flower has unique pollination method in that it is mostly autonomous self ...
Ornithophily or bird pollination is the pollination of flowering plants by birds. Chiropterophily or bat pollination is the pollination of flowering plants by bats. Plants adapted to use bats or moths as pollinators typically have white petals, strong scent and flower at night, whereas plants that use birds as pollinators tend to produce ...
Mucuna holtonii is a species of plant in the bean family, which is pollinated by bats.Bats are able to detect if the flowers have nectar using echolocation. [2] [3] After an initial bat visit during which nectar is removed, the petals are arranged in a different manner (altering the shape of the flower).
Heliconia solomonensis is pollinated by the macroglosine bat (Melonycteris woodfordi) in the Solomon Islands. Heliconia solomonensis has green inflorescences and flowers that open at night, which is typical of bat pollinated plants. The macroglosine bat is the only known nocturnal pollinator of Heliconia solomonensis. [15]
The well-known T. chantrieri goes by the names of black batflower, bat-head lily, devil flower or cat's whiskers. Tacca integrifolia is known as the purple or white batflower . Other cultivated varieties include the arrowroot , T. leontopetaloides , and T. cristata aspera .
There are major differences between bat pollination in the New World as opposed to the Old World. In the Old World pollinating bats are large fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae which do not have the ability to hover and must perch in the plant to lap the nectar; these bats furthermore do not have the ability to echolocate. [11]
This plant has evolved bowl shaped leaves which act as reflectors for a bat's biosonar. [5] This helps the bats to find the plants with greater ease and hence pollinate them with more frequency. The shape of the leaves also helps to guide the bats in locating the hidden feeders. [6]
Bat pollination is called chiropterophily. Hundreds of tropical plant species completely, or partially, dependent on bats for pollination in tropical regions. [30] As of 2009, 28 orders, 67 families and about 528 species of angiosperms in some 250 genera are known to be pollinated by nectar-feeding bats. [29]