Question

In the sausage tree (Kigelia Africana) the pollination takes place by?
(a) Birds
(b) Bats
(c) Wind
(d) Insects

Answer 1

Hint: The only mammal which is capable of flying is attracted to the nectar produced by the flower and helps in pollination. Pollination done by those mammals is called chiropterophily.

Complete answer:
Sausage tree(Kigelia Africana) is a flowering plant belonging to the family Bignoniaceae. In these plants, pollination takes place mainly by bats and rarely by insects and wind. pollination by bats is called chiropterophily.

Additional Information: - The stigma in the pistil receives pollen grains from shed from the anther via various agents. This is called pollination.
- Pollination is of three kinds namely autogamy, geitonogamy, and xenogamy
- If the stigma receives pollen grains from the anther of the same flower or same plant, it is called autogamy
- If the stigma receives pollen from the anther of a different flower in the same plant, it is called geitonogamy
- If stigma receives pollen from the anther of stamen present in the different flower of different plant, it is called xenogamy
- There are various agents such as wind, animals, water, etc that support pollination
- Anemophily is pollination by wind, hydrophily is pollination by water and zoophily.
- Entomophily is pollination by insects, ornithophily is pollination by birds, chiropterophily is pollination by bats, theriophily is pollination by squirrels and zoophily is pollination by reptiles.
- Bats which feed on nectar comes to these flowers of the sausage tree and they help in pollination
So, the correct answer is 'bats'

Note: Hydrophily is of two types epihydrophily and hypohydrophily. Epihydrophily is pollination on the surface of water and hypohydrophily is pollination under the water.
The flowers of the plants which get pollinated by insects and bats produce sweet nectar, one of the adaptations to attract them.