Description
BAT POLLINATED TOBACCO:
Most Tobacco species are moth or hummingbird pollinated, yet Nicotiana otophora is pollinated by nectar-feeding bats, and the shape of the flowers themselves (as well as the heavy nectar production) hint at it.
This trait is known as Chiropterophily (as opposed to Ornithophily : Bird Pollination, Phalaenophily : Moth Pollination, Melittophily : Bees, Cantharophily : Beetles).
We saw this sticky plant growing in the dry forests of Bolivia with huge tree cacti, Tillandsias and numerous members of the Caper Family, and realized the flowers large and bulbous, rather than tubular, elongatedand narrow and realized something looked off. So far as I can tell, this is one of the only members of the genus Nicotiana that specializes and evolved with pollination by bats.