REINALDO AGUILAR (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) 
66 Arnoldia 78/5-6 « October 2021 
Flowers of Bombacopsis quinata open at sundown, seemingly more abundant in the treetops when the moon is full. 
There is little traffic on the Pan-American 
Highway, which means that I can easily observe 
the star-studded trees of Bombacopsis quinata, 
a relative of the silk cotton tree, on both sides of 
the road. Under the full moon, it is a beautiful 
sight, with a tree coming into view every few 
minutes. The “stars,” indeed, are large, white, 
moth-pollinated flowers, perched high in the 
leafless crowns of these very large trees. For the 
past several evenings, I have been passing by 
these trees in flower, but this time, the number 
of flowers on the trees appears to be unusually 
large. Flowers in this species last for a single 
night, but individual trees flower over many 
weeks, with a new batch opening every night. 
It seemed that the intensity of flowering was 
associated with lunar cycles, with the largest 
number of flowers opening on nights with the 
full moon. 
While, on this evening drive, I cannot con- 
firm the correlation between the intensity of 
flowering and phases of the moon, research- 
ers would later document such trends for other 
species. Moths are known to be more active on 
moonlit nights, and pollination can be more 
intense during a full moon for moth-pollinated 
species, as, for example, in Ephedra foeminea, 
a gymnosperm. In contrast to most gymno- 
sperms, which are wind-pollinated, this spe- 
cies attracts moths by secreting a pollination 
drop from its cones. Individual plants produce 
their maximum amount of pollination drops 
during full moons. Meanwhile, a related species 
of Ephedra is wind-pollinated, and in that case, 
there is no connection between pollination and 
lunar cycles.’ 
Is there a general correlation between lunar 
cycles and pollination intensity for the thou- 
