Rare flower needs prickly neighbors

In a newly discovered twist on the importance of good neighbors, a member of the mallow family makes more fruit when it grows beside a tangle of pandanus plants.

Researchers had been studying pollination of Trochetia blackburniana, a rare plant found only on the island of Mauritius. Geckos of the species Phelsuma cepediana transfer pollen as they poke their heads into the plants’ large red flowers to sip nectar.