Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana

taxobox
name = Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Monocots
unranked_ordo = Commelinids
ordo = Arecales
familia = Arecaceae
genus = "Calyptrogyne"
species = "C. ghiesbreghtiana"
binomial = "Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana"
binomial_authority = H. Wendl.|

"Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana", commonly called the coligallo palm (Spanish for rooster tail, a reference to the form of the leaf), is an understory palm native to Central America, where it grows in tropical rainforests.

It is a stemless or short-stemmed palm with a trunk up to 2 m tall. The leaves are undivided, or pinnate with 3-9 leaflets, the terminal leaflet with a forked apex. The flowers are produced all year round, on upright inflorescences; they are monoecious, with complete temporal separation of the male and female stages. The flowers are pollinated by bats in the family Phyllostomidae. Because the flowers are made of a sweet chewable tissue (like the pulp of a fruit) they are much favoured by katydids (Tettigoniidae), whose feeding reduces the number of flowers available to be pollinated.

The inflorescences host a species of mite (Acari) which live and reproduce on the inflorscence and travel to new inflorescences by hitching a ride on the flower-visiting bats. The behaviour of parasitising another animal for transport but not food is known as phoresy. A similar phenomenon which has been more comprehensively surveyed are the mites that live in flowers visited by hummingbirds and are phoretic on these flower-visiting birds.

References

* [http://www.fairchildgarden.org/palmguide/vh.php?family=ARECACEAE&genus=Calyptrogyne Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden: "Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana" herbarium specimens]