How can they do these things without alerting TPP? October 11 was Tree Diversity Day and who knew? Biodiversity International didn't put anything on their webpage until Oct. 18th. Nothing would please this blogger more than to support Tree Diversity Day, but someone needs to figure out PR because clearly the information highway was moving pretty slowly on this one. Well, better late than never. Here's a tree that might be new to you, a celebration of diversity, the candle tree. The long (up to 1 m), fleshy, many-seeded, yellowish fruits are quite distinctive (and unusual in this family) and supposedly edible, but TPP cannot verify this. Like many tropical trees Parmentiera cereifera (Bignoniaceae) flowers on old wood. The flowers are large, white and open at night, and that along with the floral shape, and other features (thick flower stalk, buldge on lower side of perianth to hold nectar) clearly indicate pollination by nectar-feeding bats.
