POLLINATION OF 3 SPECIES OF ABUTILON (MALVACEAE) INTERMEDIATE BETWEENBAT AND HUMMINGBIRD FLOWER SYNDROMES

Some species of Abutilon in southeastern Brazil overlap their flower f eatures between hummingbird and bat pollination syndromes. We studied three such species in the montane rainforest in southeastern Brazil. A butilon rufinerve, A. regnellii and A. aff. regnellii present the foll owing combination of ornithophilous and chiropterophilous features: be ll to bowl-shaped flowers lasting about 30 h, coloured pinkish to purp lish, or yellowish, crepuscular (dusk or dawn) anthesis, and very fain t cabbage odour. The flowers are visited and pollinated by a species o f phyllostomid bat at night, and by several species of hummingbirds du ring the day. Although somewhat intermediate between ornithophily and chiropterophily, the floral features of the three species of Abutilon tend towards the bat-pollination syndrome.