Roella ciliata is probably pollinated by monkey beetles and other insects, like bees. Monkey beetles covered with pollen are commonly seen in Roella ciliata flowers.

Roella flowers are protrandrous, meaning that the male reproductive organs (the stamens) mature before the female ones (ovary, style and stigma). Before the flower opens, the pollen from its own stamens is deposited on pollen-collecting hairs on the upper part of the style. When the flower opens, the visiting insects remove the pollen from the style - at this stage the style can be seen as a straight rod dusted with pollen, with the navy blue-black stamens around it. At the next stage of development, the hairs retract and the pollen falls to the base of the flower. Then the stigma ripens and becomes receptive to pollen - at this stage you can see the top of the style unfurl into two white lobes. Since its own pollen is out of the way, the stigma is only exposed to pollen brought in by insects from other flowers, and cross-pollination is achieved.