Bat-loving Flowers

More than 500 species of tropical plants are pollinated by nectar- and pollen-eating bats, and they have evolved special features to make their nectar and pollen attractive to the nocturnal flyers. Such plants are called chiropterophilous, or “bat-loving” (bats being mammals of the order Chiroptera). Plants that rely primarily on bat pollinators cater to them with large, white flowers, which bats can spot easily at night. The flowers often have a fermented or musky odour, and they tend to open after sunset, just as bats leave their day roosts to feed. In order to accommodate a bat’s face, many bat-pollinated flowers are shaped like a vase, although some are flat and brushy in order to load a bat’s whiskers with pollen.

Chiropterophilous plants even manufacture substances that are useless to the plant itself but helpful to the bat. Because bats often eat the pollen as well as the nectar of their flowers, the pollen of bat-loving plants is high in protein and contains two amino acids, tyrosine and proline, that are crucial to bat health. Proline is important in building strong wing and tail membranes, and tyrosine is essential for milk production.

Nectar-eating bats (of which there are more than 30 genera) have special adaptations also. They tend to have fleshy bristles on their long tongues, as do many bees, to scoop out pollen as well as nectar. They have good eyesight and a fine sense of smell; often their sonar is reduced. Migratory bats pollinate a variety of species as they travel, and plants are often seen to flower in sequence along a sort of “nectar corridor” corresponding to the bats’ migratory route.