Gecko Pollinators Help "Save" Rare Flower
Gecko Pollinators Help "Save" Rare Flower
By Scott Norris
for National Geographic News
April 23, 2007
On the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, a brilliant green lizard and a palmlike shrub are helping to save a rare flowering plant from extinction.
The naturally occurring conservation partnership features the lizard—a species known as the blue-tailed day gecko—in an unusual role, researchers say: The lizard is the key pollinator of the threatened Trochetia flower.
The shrubby Pandanus plant does its part by providing the lizard a safe haven from predators as it performs pollinations, according to a new study.
Although insects also visited the Trochetia flowers, the research team found that the bugs did not carry much pollen from one blossom to another, proving the gecko is the main pollinator.
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