Succulent Trees, Pollinated by Bats (MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL)

Описание: 𝑺𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒔 & 𝑩𝒂𝒕-𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔

Although winter in the tropics may not get cold, it does indeed get very dry (due to the tilt of the Earth and the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ)) while still remaining quite warm due to the low latitude.

Tropical plants need to find a gimmick to get around this, and Pseudobombax (Cotton Family, Malvaceae) does this quite well.

Pseudobombax is one of those genera that I only wish more people in the Northern Hemisphere knew about. Its such a cool one - relatively diverse in the number of species, and incredibly important ecologically. Members of this genus tend to be succulent trees (related to Baobab) with incredibly showy flowers and cool pollination syndromes. Some of the species almost remind me of Plumeria, though they are not related.

Owing to the succulence in the stems and trunk, flowers of Pseudobombax generally open during the dry season when the trees are leafless. Some species produce flowers that are pollinated by bats, some species produce flowers that are pollinated by hummingbirds, and one species - Pseudobombax tomentosum - even produces flowers that are pollinated by South American possums (which look nothing like their North American relatives), Brown-eared wooly possums to be precise. This last case is exceptional, as mammals that aren't bats pollianting flowers is relatively rare and confined to "the old world".

Also worth noting that the flowers produce extrafloral nectaries - little glands that produce sugar in order to pay ants to act like bouncers and attack any would-be herbivores or insects that might otherwise pester the tree.

This genus is related to Baobabs (genus Adansonia), Balsawood (Ochroma pyramidale) and Kapok trees (Ceiba sp.), all of which are of course keystone species in their respective ecosystems and massively important to the life that flourishes in those places.

Species is probably Pseudobombax campestre.