Most species are found in rainforests and have white or yellow-green flowers. The ancestral mode of pollination in Cayaponia was inferred as pollinated by bats, but at least two shifts to bee pollination are inferred among some of its species. This is apparently the first clade to shift from bat to bee pollination vice bee to bat pollination.[5] A 2011 phylogenetioc study placed the genus Selysia under this genus.[6]
^Duchen, Pablo; Renner, Susanne S. (July 2010). "The evolution of Cayaponia (Cucurbitaceae): Repeated shifts from bat to bee pollination and long-distance dispersal to Africa 2–5 million years ago". American Journal of Botany. 97 (7): 1129–1141. doi:10.3732/ajb.0900385. JSTOR27857329. PMID21616865.