News Life

A tree in Brazil’s arid northeast rains nectar from its flowers

Hymenaea cangaceira is one of two known plants to make a “sweet rain” that attracts pollinators

Pallas’s long-tongued bat

A Pallas’s long-tongued bat approaches the flower of a Hymenaea cangaceira tree, one of only two trees known to have flowers that produce a drizzle of nectar.

A. Domingos de Melo

By Jake Buehler

- More than 2 years ago

It’s night, and plant biologist Arthur Domingos de Melo is looking up at the open, ivory flowers of a tropical, hardwood tree.