<Emphasis Type="Italic">In situ</Emphasis> Management and Patterns of Morphological Variation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ceiba aesculifolia</Emphasis> subsp. <Emphasis Type="Italic">parvifolia</Emphasis> (Bombacaceae) in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley

In situ Management and Patterns of Morphological Variation of Ceiba aesculifolia subsp. parvifolia (Bombacaceae) in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley. Archaeological studies in Mexico’s Tehuacán Valley that were conducted during the 1960s revealed that the prehistoric use of “pochote” Ceiba aesculifolia was mainly for its edible roots and seeds. Recent ethnobotanical studies in the villages of Coxcatlán, San Rafael, and San José Tilapa, municipality of Coxcatlán, Puebla, documented that currently seeds are the most important plant parts of this tree used in the region. Local people recognize three morphological types of pochote trees: the purple-reddish, the pale green, and the dark-green reddish fruit variants, the first two being preferred because of their larger and more abundant seeds. This study documents the patterns of morphological variation of C. aesculifolia in human-managed and unmanaged populations in the communities just mentioned in order to analyze whether management has been directed to favor abundance of morphological types preferred by people. The main morphological types named by people were characterized by morphometric studies, and their frequencies in populations under different management intensity were evaluated through vegetation sampling. The morphometric studies corroborated that the morphological types recognized by people are identifiable groups, whereas vegetation sampling revealed that pochote variants preferred by people (the purple-reddish fruit type) were relatively more abundant in human-managed areas than in natural vegetation. This information suggests the occurrence of artificial selection associated with in situ management of this plant species.     

Nectarivory by Endemic Malagasy Fruit Bats During the Dry Season1

Madagascar has a distinctive fruit bat community consisting of Pteropus rufus, Eidolon dupreanum, and Rousettus madagascariensis. In this study, we observed fruit bat visits to flowering baobabs (Adansonia suarezensis and Adansonia grandidieri) and kapok trees (Ceiba pentandra) during the austral winter. Eidolon dupreanum was recorded feeding on the nectar of baobabs and kapok, P. rufus was observed feeding on kapok only and no R. madagascariensis were seen. Three mammals species, two small lemurs (Phaner furcifer and Mirza coquereli) and E. dupreanum, made nondestructive visits to flowering A. grandidieri and are therefore all potential pollinators of this endangered baobab. This is the first evidence to show that A. grandidieri is bat‐pollinated and further demonstrates the close link between fruit bats and some of Madagascar's endemic plants. Eidolon dupreanum was the only mammal species recorded visiting A. suarezensis and visits peaked at the reported times of maximum nectar concentration. Pteropus rufus visited kapok mostly before midnight when most nectar was available, but E. dupreanum visited later in the night. These differences in timing of foraging on kapok can be explained either by differing distances from the roost sites of each species or by resource partitioning. We advocate increased levels of protection, education awareness, and applied research on both mammal‐pollinated baobab species and fruit bats, and suggest that both baobabs and bats are candidate “flagship species” for the threatened dry forests of Madagascar.