Plants have repeatedly evolved flowers that attract bats as pollinators. Although New World and Old World bats differ in their foraging behavior (using echolocation versus vision and olfaction, respectively), flowers pollinated by bats are considered a single "bat flower syndrome." This research aims to identify the various aspects of what makes a flower attractive to bats by comparing bat-pollinated plant species in a single family (Bignoniaceae). The plant family Bignoniaceae has repeatedly evolved bat flowers in separate lineages that are restricted to different continents. The bat flowers of these species found on Africa versus South America, for example, are likely to use different means of attracting (e.g., floral scents vs. flower shape) the species of bats found on these two continents.
In order to identify what makes a flower attractive to bats and to determine how bat flowers evolve, bat flowers will be examined in an evolutionary framework. Bat flowers restricted to Old vs. New World will be compared and their morphology, ecology and floral odor will be contrasted. The evolutionary framework is determined by sequencing the DNA of seventeen species of Bignoniaceae that are putatively pollinated by bats and adding these sequences to an already established sequence-based set of relationships for this plant family. Furthermore, different means of analyzing the (morphological, ecological, and odor) data using an evolutionary framework will be compared by utilizing and contrasting various current approaches. This study contributes to the practical understanding of the various analytical approaches of using evolutionary relationships to explore broader questions of evolution of particular traits, such as flower types (e.g., bat flowers). Moreover, this study adds greatly to an understanding of a group of plants that is a good model for looking at questions involving ecology and evolution of rainforest trees. Finally, this study adds to the body of knowledge of how plants and animals interact and evolve in relationship to one another.
