100 things challenge - 56: Balsa tree
Oct. 5th, 2013 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdienlOh dear, I just saw that it was over a month since I did my last '100 things' post :-0 High time for some new interesting facts!
The balsa tree (Ochroma pyramidale) is a large, fast-growing tree native to the rainforests of Middle and Southern America. The trees, which can grow up to 10 meters high in only 3-4 years, are harvested for their soft and light wood.
The tree produces large flowers, which only open for a single night. The flowers can produce up to 50 ml of nectar each and this makes them very attractive to all kind of animals. Especially because the tree flowers at the end of the rainy season, when there is little other food about. Animals which feed on the nectar are as diverse as moths, bats, hummingbirds, opossums and monkeys! Some other animals do not feed on the nectar themselves, but do gather on flowering balsa trees to catch prey which comes to drink, such as snakes and predatory insects. In this respect, ecologists sometimes compare the flowering balsa tree to an African watering hole on the savanna, because of the amount of animals it attracts and supports.
Ofcourse plants do not produce nectar just to support animals, in return they 'expect' the animals to pollinate them, in other words, help with their reproduction. The main pollinators of the balsa tree are thought to be mammals: bats, monkeys, woolly opossums and the kinkajou and olingo (nocturnal animals related to raccoons)
A kinkajou with lots of balsa pollen on its cheek next to an open balsa flower.
The balsa tree (Ochroma pyramidale) is a large, fast-growing tree native to the rainforests of Middle and Southern America. The trees, which can grow up to 10 meters high in only 3-4 years, are harvested for their soft and light wood.
The tree produces large flowers, which only open for a single night. The flowers can produce up to 50 ml of nectar each and this makes them very attractive to all kind of animals. Especially because the tree flowers at the end of the rainy season, when there is little other food about. Animals which feed on the nectar are as diverse as moths, bats, hummingbirds, opossums and monkeys! Some other animals do not feed on the nectar themselves, but do gather on flowering balsa trees to catch prey which comes to drink, such as snakes and predatory insects. In this respect, ecologists sometimes compare the flowering balsa tree to an African watering hole on the savanna, because of the amount of animals it attracts and supports.
Ofcourse plants do not produce nectar just to support animals, in return they 'expect' the animals to pollinate them, in other words, help with their reproduction. The main pollinators of the balsa tree are thought to be mammals: bats, monkeys, woolly opossums and the kinkajou and olingo (nocturnal animals related to raccoons)
A kinkajou with lots of balsa pollen on its cheek next to an open balsa flower.
