Centropogon nigricans

Family: Campanulaceae

Country of Origin: Ecuador

Description: This plant is notable as being solely pollinated by the tube-lipped nectar bat (Anoura fistulata), a rare South American bat that has a spectacularly long tongue - up to 150% the length of its body, it is proportionally the longest of any mammal. The bat appears to have evolved its incredible tongue in order to feed exclusively from a tubular flower found in the "cloud forests" of Ecuador. Anoura fistulata is only the size of a mouse, but its tongue is around 8.5 centimetres long – more than double the tongue-length of similar nectar bats. Compared with its body, a tongue of this size is second only to the chameleon in terms of vertebrates, and it is the longest of all the mammals.

Accession #: 307

Accession Date: -0001-11-30 00:00:00

Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Subclass: euasterid II

Order: Asterales

Family: Campanulaceae

SubFamily: Lobelioideae