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Marcgravia evenia is a climbing vine from Cuba in the Marcgraviaceae family, prized for its unusual pendant inflorescence that bats use to find nectar. It is a wet tropical forest climber and is rarely grown outside its native habitat, so care guidance is limited.
Marcgravia evenia is a species of flowering vine in the family Marcgraviaceae. Within this family it belongs to the Galetae group, which is characterized by a long inflorescence axis and boat shaped nectaries. The plant is endemic to Cuba. The inflorescence of M. evenia is extraordinary. At the upper end of the pendant inflorescence are several concave bracts set at an angle to reflect and focus sonar pulses from bats, helping the bats to locate the flowers. In the middle of the inflorescence is a discoid circle (or single-whorled umbel) of about twenty tubular tetramerous flowers. Below these is a second set of bracts very different from the reflective ones. These are modified into extrafloral nectaries which is why the bats are interested, and can be enlisted as pollinators.
Marcgravia crassiflora · Marcgravia grandifolia · Marcgravia polyadenia · Marcgravia umbellata
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Marcgravia evenia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
