Author Topic: Durian pollination outside native range  (Read 312 times)

Gogu

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Durian pollination outside native range
« on: June 02, 2021, 01:21:04 AM »
I was wondering if there was any wildlife that pollinates durian outside of its native range. Has anyone observed anything like that in Central America or anywhere else besides Southeast Asia?

EDIT: After some googling I have found this https://tropicalstudies.org/rbt/attachments/volumes/vol17-2/03-Baker-Bats.pdf

"A single tree of this species, planted in the botanical garden of the Tela Railroad Company at Lancetilla, Honduras, was watched for four hours after dusk on July 15, 1968. Photographs were taken of visitors to the flowers as they could be perceived dimly silhouetted against the sky. There was no evidence that the flash was disturbing to the visitors which never spent more than two or three seconds at the flowers. Figs. 1-5 show that the visitors were one species of bat and one species of hawkmoth, respectively. This is not the first time that these two kinds of animals have been seen to be attracted to (and photographed on) the same flowers (cf. Kigelia africana Benth., Bignoniaceae, in Ghana, HARRIS and BAKER, 15), but it is of interest in once again challenging the popular belief that it is only sweet smells which are attractive to moths.

It is clear that  the microchiropteran pictured in Figs. 1-4 is capable of carrying pollen from one flower to another for its head is liberally dusted with the abundant Durio pollen. It would seem  that cross-pollination with another tree is necessary for fruit-setting, however, because the isolated tree at Lancetilla has not been known to set fruit.

The hawkmoth also appears capable of cross pollination, for small masses of pollen may be seen (Fig. 5) adhering to the extended proboscis of the moth as it approaches a fresh group of flowers.

Visits by the bats were less frequent than might have been expected if the flowers provided their whole food supply for the night. Thus, intervals of as much as 20 minutes occurred during which no bat activity could be detected in the vicinity of the tree. It is probable that in this case, as in others studied by me elsewhere in tropical America, these microchiropterous bats were engaged in hawking for insects between their very brief visits to the flowers to lap nectar. Before it is concluded that this reduces their efficiency as cross-pollinators, how­ever, it should be considered that this behavior may lead to a higher proportion of pollen transfers from one tree to another than the more concentrated attack upon one tree at a time which megachiropterans may make in the Old World."
« Last Edit: June 03, 2021, 02:37:04 AM by Gogu »

 

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