Eden Project

A vividly exotic plant is wowing springtime visitors in our Rainforest Biome.
The pale green hanging jade vine, which can grow up to 100m in length in its native Philippines, can be seen among the lush foliage in various parts of the Biome. It is expected to stay in flower until Easter.
The rare and endangered plant represents a fascinating story of pollination. In the wild it is pollinated by bats, but as there are none in the Biome, supervisor John Nichol has been mimicking their action with his hands.
He explains: "In the wild, as the bat hangs upside down to drink nectar from the flower, another part of the flower deposits pollen on the back of its head. As it moves on, that pollen is deposited on the female part of the next flower and pollination occurs. This is one of the novel feats of nature.”