I THINK I PAY attention to little, underappreciated aspects of nature more than most people—Wildlife Conservation Society colleagues aside—but before this third lockdown in Kigali, I had no idea how a banana flower operated or that it was a favorite food source of bats.
It turns out that strange pendulous bud hanging from a bunch of bananas actually functions like a magical, time-release onion case (my own non-scientific term). Each afternoon, one leathery purple “petal” peels open to reveal a swath of small yellow-white flowers that bees swarm to until dusk. Come morning, that petal and its spent flowers fall off and the pendant bloom appears locked tight again.
WCS Wild View: The Banana and the Bat
It turns out that strange pendulous bud hanging from a bunch of bananas actually functions like a magical, time-release onion case (my own non-scientific term). Each afternoon, one leathery purple “petal” peels open to reveal a swath of small yellow-white flowers that bees swarm to until dusk. Come morning, that petal and its spent flowers fall off and the pendant bloom appears locked tight again.
WCS Wild View: The Banana and the Bat