It is common knowledge that some flowering plants need the aid of insects and animals to pollinate and achieve fertilisation. Many use wind or water for the transportation of pollen while others have simply developed mechanisms to self pollinate. Flowers have co-evolved with their pollinators, hence aiding in successful interactions. The flower type, shape, color, odor, nectar, and structure vary by the type of pollinator that visits them. Once the bees, birds and squirrels have finished their day shift, the moths and bats take over the task at night.
This article discusses an extremely noteworthy combination, and if you read the title you will know what I am talking about! That’s right, bats help in pollination of the wild flowers of the banana plants and also disperse their seeds. The flowers that attract bats typically open at night(nocturnal flowering), are large in size (1-3.5 inches), of pale or white colour, very fragrant – emitting a fruit-like odour and/or abundant with nectar. Bananas have evolved along with bats for over 50 million years!
Important pollinators in tropical and desert climates, most flower-visiting bats are thus found in Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. However, the populations of fruit pollinating bats are under threat and a few species have also been declared endangered. This jeopardises the fruit’s long term future. A few questions come to mind. Why is this study of interest or even of importance to us? Most commercially produced fruit is sterile, so why do we need bats? And how does it affect the market?
Well, if we want to keep eating bananas, we do need bats. Firstly, the commercially transplanted plants are genetically so similar that a single disease could wipe off the fruit entirely from the face of our planet. Moreover, pollinators at large are vital to create and preserve the innumerous habitats and ecosystems all living organisms rely on. Ivan W. Buddenhagen, a researcher with 30 years’ experience in tropical agriculture of Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Pacific, states that “…bat pollination and seed production must continue or the wild species will disappear. This has already happened over vast areas of bananas’ former range as forest habitat was cleared for agriculture. The loss of tropical forests also destroys the bats’ habitats.”
Fig: Pallas’ long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina) dipping its long red tongue into a banana flower.
Credit: Merlin D. Tuttle/Science Source
Wild bananas are now largely extinct over vast areas. The few that remain are especially invaluable as potential breeding parents as they carry disease resistant genes. These must be conserved. And along with them, the flying foxes essential to their pollination. M S Swaminathan, the Indian geneticist known for his role in the Green Revolution has rightly said, “If conservation of natural resources goes wrong, nothing else will go right!”
Nimisha Singla
References:
http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/bats-magazine/bat_article/1033
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/bats.shtml
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/What_is_Pollination/syndromes.shtml#traits
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