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 97 banana inflorescence DHJanzen101132.jpg high resolution
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| Here a pendant banana inflorescence bears its last male flowers. At each node above, over many successive nights, the plant produced a set of male flowers. The many fewer female flowers at the top of the inflorescence appear to not have been pollinated - perhaps not surprising, since this plant is in Costa Rica where the flower-visiting bats are smaller and not of a body weight and behavior that is ideal for bat pollination of a large flower evolved with the large flying foxes (very large bats) of the Asiatic tropics. | ||
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