Introduction

Bats pollinate many types of flowers. Often the flowers are white, funnel shapes, have distinctive odors, and open at night. All of these features seem to help the bats find the flowers.

The Details

Bats are famous for pollinating cacti. A chiropterophilous is a bat-loving cactus. Chiropter refers to bat, and philous indicates love or “fondness for.” The idea is that cacti that use bat pollinators “like bats.” Among the cacti that have bat pollinators are: 1. Stenocereus queretaroensis (a tall cactus from dry Mexican forests), 2.  Pachycereus weberi, 3.  Pilosocereus chrysacanthus, and 4. Carnegiea gitantea (saguarao cactus).

Many bat-pollinated cacti are tall. If a tall cactus has white flowers that open at night, the chances are that it is bat pollinated. The feature is not rare in columnar cacti.

Additional Reading: Bat pollination of Stenocereus

Additional Reading: Bat/hummingbird pollination of a cactus