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Frank

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  1. I have been studying and growing Rubiaceous ant-plants for 20 years now and there have been lots of exciting developments during that time. Arguably one of the best developments was getting Squamellarias into cultivation! Wow! And then that introduction gets followed up with the fabulous work of Dr. Guillaume Chomicki uncovering the complex symbiosis some of the Squamellarias have with Philidris nagasau ants that has the ants "farming" the plants. The ants "plant" the seeds, protect them and fertilize them (feces in the warted chamber of the seedlings). The plants, for their part in the symbiosis, delay the development of the fruits for several months after pollination happens so that a special nectary on the top of the ovary can feed the ants of the colony! If you need to catch-up with this research start with these two articles - available with free download at these two sites: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310608117_Obligate_plant_farming_by_a_specialized_ant and https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.13990 Even before these articles I knew I had to grow this species when I saw the habitat photos of this species that Derrick and Andreas posted here on our Forum of what looks like Australian rugby balls hanging in the trees with concentric patterns of holes punched in their surface. (see Derrick's thread titled "Squamellaria major" in this Squamellaria section of this Forum for some of those photos.) My plant, which I bought as a seedling in July of 2018 from Andreas at the Nepenthes Nursery, is shaped more like a pile of dog droppings than a rugby ball and is covered with an excess of adventitious roots! I have the large mass of adventitious roots because I am growing the plant in a high humidity orchidarium. Here is how my plant looks today; it is growing in a 5 inch bulb pan: In spite of its shape I can live with how it looks because of the thick, textured, and beautifully patterned leaves and the fact that it made its first flower on April 21 of this year and its first fruit today, July 12, 2020. Here are photos of that first flower: (The flower in the second photo is lying alongside the inches side of the ruler.) I was very happy to see that the flowers are self fertile because I no longer have the second plant of this species that I had originally obtained to use for cross pollination. Here are two photos of the ripe fruit on the plant. Note the veins in the fruit, the interesting color and the black marks on the surface of the fruit. There are other flowers and fruits in different stages of development on the plant: The mature fruit is in the background in this next photo. On the left is a fertilized flower that is currently using the nectary on the top of the ovary to feed the colony - it has the white base with the greenish collar. Just below it is a flower that just got fertilized in the last few days. The style is still attached to the top of the ovary inside the green collar (the calyx) and the petal tube is decaying but still hanging on the style. This view of the fruit shows the small black spots better: (the numbered lines are centimeters, the unnumbered are millimeters in the next 3 photos.) I pulled the fruit apart and found the expected 4 seeds inside The seeds each have an elaborate tail, much more fibrous than the mucus-like tail on Myrmecodia seeds. The seed to the right of the other 3 has a small protuberance showing on the side of the seed opposite the tail. I suspect it may be the radical, the tip of the root, that leaves the seed first on germination. I fear I broke it off of two of the seeds. I have already planted the seeds on chopped up long-fiber sphagnum, so I will know if I messed up those two seeds soon enough. These Squamellarias are surely different than the Hydnophytums and Myrmecodias! I have to say I have really enjoyed growing this plant --- I just need it to start looking like a rugby ball soon!!! PS. The next morning 3 of the 4 seeds are germinating. This is fast, even by ant-plant standards!
  2. Hi, Frank the administrator here, I ran Ezhikovich's posting thru google translate (Russian) and this is how it came out. Some of our people want to take a shot at a possible answer for this person? Hello! Half of my plants began to deform their new leaves, and the old leaves began to curl. They grow in different conditions of humidity and temperature, some on the windowsill, and others in the orchidaria. No pests, fertilizers use Osmokot. What could be the problem? I would be grateful for your suggestions.
  3. Science News, a bimonthly magazine about science topics, in it's April 25, 2020 issue has a 5 page article about various ants who have been cultivating plants and fungi; saying that they "may be the first known animals other than human to farm plants". The first page of the article stars the Philidris nagasau ants that plant Squamellaria seeds in the bark of trees on Fiji, protect the seedlings and adult plants, fertilize them with their feces and occupy the plants by living in the chambers in the caudex. None of this is new to us as Science News got all of this from Susan Renner and Guillaume Chomicki's papers that we have been following starting with their first one that revised the genus Squamellaria in 2016: (available free on line as, " Evolutionary relationships and biogeography of the ant‐epiphytic genus Squamellaria (Rubiaceae: Psychotrieae) and their taxonomic implications"). The Science News article has photos of Squamellarias in habitat on Fiji and a cross section of the caudex to show the chambers. A serious disappointment to me is that the Science News article refuses to use the word "caudex" and refers to it instead as the "bulbous base" or "blob". I am shocked about this!! Most of the rest of the Science News article is about three groups of fungus farming insects: 1) several thousand species of Ambrosia beetles, 2) about 330 species of termites in the subfamily Macrotermitinae, and 3) the Atta leaf-cutter ants (who get discussed the most). The last section of the article goes back to the Squamellaria/Philidris relationship including mention of the sugary, amino acid spiked feeding stations that form specifically to feed the ants. These form on the flowers after the flowers have been pollinated and fertilized so they are not there to draw in and encourage pollinators. Also referenced in this article is Guillaume Chomicki et al's latest paper: "Trade-offs in the evolution of plant framing by ants" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, dated February 4, 2020. I have not read this one yet.
  4. Do not leave here today without seeing Aurelien's great posting about the new greenhouse in Nancy, France. It is a FANTASTIC PHOTO TOUR! Look for it in the "Ant Plants in Cultivation" section.
  5. Hi Tommy, Welcome to the forum. We hope you find the information here useful in your plant hobby. Growing ant-plants mounted requires more effort and diligence than growing in pots and is best attempted only when you have a high humidity growing area, say 75% and over. Your plant and the overall planting look very good. The mass of sphagnum is essential in this way of growing and you need to keep the moss constantly wet, or at least moist. This is what make this way of growing more high maintenance compared to pots. The yellowing and loss of lower leaves is not unusual when the plants are stressed - like when being repotted or getting too dry. Good growing
  6. Hi George, Welcome to the forum. We hope you find a lot of useful and interesting information here. Thanks for joining us. As to your H. puffii - you are right to be concerned - the shrinking of the caudex is not a good sign. (A caudex is a swollen stem base -- a bulb is like an onion, a collection of closely wrapped leaves) . When you say "soil" we hope you do not mean soil as in what you plant a garden or regular houseplant in. These ant- plants are epiphytes - plants that live on the surface of another plant so their roots will die if they are planted in normal garden-like soil. They need to be grown in an epiphyte mix like most orchid growers use to grow orchids. Something made of bark chips, long fiber sphagnum, perlite, coconut husk chunks, etc - so that the roots stay moist but can still get air. If you passed the soil test and have the right growing media, the next thought is watering. When you water, water well, not just a little water at the surface. With epiphyte mix you can even set the pot in a small tray or container of water for 10 or 15 mintues, let all the soil components soak up their fill and than take the pot out and not water again for perhaps a week or so until the mix is close to dry again. Do you live where it is cold? If so and if what you are describing as your window growing is between the blinds and the window than your plant could be getting too cold at night Get it a little further from the window. Most of these ant-plants do not like getting below 60 Fahrenheit Cold can cause rot that often presents as a soft, shrinking caudex. Those are my thoughts on your problem based on the information you gave us. If these things I have described are not the possible problem tell us more about your growing situation, perhaps give us photos, and we will try again to help. Let me add that in my experience H. puffii is the poster child for an ant-plant that takes a definite winter rest for me (northern hemisphere, USA,Michigan). They have never grown for me during December to sometime in March or April. They just sit there and look pretty. Thanks again for joining the forum
  7. Hi Bern, I grew it in a greenhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA for about 7 years. It started out as a cutting on a piece of tree fern. When that started growing off the tree fern I nailed that to a tree trunk in the main conservatory and it has grown up that trunk about 8 feet. It has always had some of the bullate leaves but it has not flowered there. I know it got regular fertilizer, but I cannot say that it ever grew vigorously for me - perhaps that is why no flowers.
  8. Fantastic Piece Jay !!!! Just great! I can't get over how good your photos are. Beautiful flowers. The step by step instructions and photos for building that display are priceless. You know a lot of us are going to have a go at it ourselves! Thank you for your continuing support of the forum both monetarily and with your exciting and insightful posts. We appreciate you sharing so generously with us!!! Frank
  9. A common question on this forum and on the facebook ant-plant groups is "Where can I get a book about the ant-plants? We have never had a good answer to that and while there is still no traditional book to fill that need, as of today, there is a free and very thorough e-book answer of yes, YES, YES Derrick Rowe has completed the revision of his epic resource "2. Epiphytic Myrmecophytes. Bizarre Wonders of Nature, 2019" and he has very graciously given me permission to make it available here to all of us! The amount of information and photos he has assembled in this work is absolutely amazing! This is such a valuable resource that it has to be kept available on the internet and I am very happy that we have it available to us all, here and now. You will find the free download available below in the Ant Plants - general information, literature and links folder. Thank you very much Derrick for your years of work on this project and for freely providing it to the ant-plant community!!!
  10. Hi Katie, Very nice photo of the snacking ant! Welcome to the ant-plant forum, we are glad to have you here. You have already brought us a wonderful gift - that link to the "indefenseofplants" blog. Fantastic site! I want everyone to take the time to check that out and bookmark that site for yourselves. Matt there has great incite into a lot of areas of biology and a knack for using photography. His work reminds me a lot of Jay's blog. Great stuff in both places! And I must thank you, Katie, for warming the heart of this retired teacher - we teachers like nothing better than seeing our students pursuing further, on their own, the knowledge we introduced them to. Thank you very much. Please keep looking around our forum, there is a lot to learn here. We keep it on the internet just for that purpose. Frank
  11. Thank you very much to all who have contributed to the funding of our forum in the previous years! Moving into the next decade I am asking you, our members (and guests too) to once again step up and fund a month or two of our forum fees to Invision. That is the sole use of your contributions. With our monthly fees to Invision being only $20 it should not “break the bank” for most of us to pitch in and fund a month or two. This small amount is keeping the fabulous photos and information we have accumulated here available to the entire world via the internet. To fund a month, please send me $20 USD by paypal to frankinmi@aol.com with the “note” line saying “forum” and the name you want me to use for you in the chart below (or let me know if you prefer to be acknowledged as “anonymous”). Whether you choose to fund a month or not, please, all of you, continue to share your information, insights and photos in postings to this forum. Please make your mark in 2020 by stepping up and helping with the forum funding. Thank you, Forum Administrator, Frank Omilian Thank you Ken for getting the ball rolling! Thank you Jay for your continuing support of our forum One of our newest members, Bern, funded May for us! Thanks for showing your appreciation for the archive we have here. I am going to lead by example for June and July! Excellent Aurélien, thank you very much for the donation and the recent posting about your work at the new greenhouse in Nancy, France Thanks Bern for stepping up for a second time this year, much appreciated. Glen Chappell, Your funding the month of November for us is greatly appreciated, thank you! Another brand new member has made his mark with the funding of December for our Forum. Thank you very much Adrian Napiorkowski of Australia. 2020 CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FORUM: January - Ken Howell February - Ken Howell March - Jay Vannini April - Jay Vannini May - Bern Mlynczak June - Frank Omilian July - Frank Omilian August - Aurélien Bour September - Aurélien Bour October - Bern Mlynczak November - Glen Chappell December - Adrian Napiorkowski
  12. This is a link is to an article about Mangroves but a lot of ink is spent on the epiphytes of the mangroves and this, of course, includes Rubiaceous ant-plants. Reading the article is like reading an old-fashion comic book, they spared no cost on the use of colored ink! https://smujo.id/S/2016/jogja/images/icbjogja2016-04.pdf
  13. IT IS NOT ANT-PLANTS, BUT IT IS JAY VANNINI AT HIS BEST ! Head again over to Jay's website and blog at "Exotica Esoterica". It is at: https://www.exoticaesoterica.com/ You will find an annotated version of a PowerPoint presentation given by Jay (as the keynote speaker) at the International Aroid Society on September 21, 2019 in Miami, Florida. The presentation is titled: Notes from the Fringe: Cool Aroids Hot/Hot Aroids Cool The slide show is fantastic, the images are excellent and Jay shares great insights into the philosophy and history of cultivating rare and desirable plants.
  14. Hi Akihiro, These photos are just great! Nice camera work. I have grown most of the species of Lecanopteris in cultivation here in the US at some point over the last 15 years and I have never had an ant move into any of them - in my basement under lights or in a large greenhouse that also housed Rubiaceous ant-plants that have ants in them (the genus Cardiocondyle) Looking over your photos I see no ants. Have you observed ants in or on the Lecanopteris you have been photographing? Thanks
  15. Frank

    2019 FORUM DONORS

    I received the December, 2019 Invision fee of $20 USD today from an anonymous donor. A big thanks to this person who has supported our efforts here on several previous occasions, also as an anonymous donor. Your kindness is appreciated. I will post the chart for the 2020 forum fees in about a month, so please start saving your pennies, francs, yens or whatever it is you use. If some money is burning a hole in your pocket and you want to send it now, that will be just wonderful. I will start the new 2020 chart the day I get your contribution. Just send some multiple of $20 USD by paypal to your forum administrator, Frank Omilian, at frankinmi@aol.com Please indicate what name you want me to list you by (or by anonymous) Thanks again to Anonymous and all of the donors that have kept our forum on the internet these past years.
  16. Frank

    2019 FORUM DONORS

    A big THANK YOU today to Aurelien Bour for his $20 contribution that will fund our forum for this coming November!! We need a few more of you to step up and contribute as well. Please take your turn! Thank you, Frank, your Forum Administrator
  17. Run, don't walk, over to Jay website and blog at "Exotica Esoterica". It is at: https://www.exoticaesoterica.com/ Because today Jay has given us his second blog article that highlights our ant-plants. You all know what a great grower of plants he is and after last year's blog when he wrote about the "Big 5 caudexed ant-plants" you knew he had some writing skills. Well, after you read this one you are going to wonder why he doesn't write for someplace important, like The New Yorker or the Washington Post! This is an incredible article!!! Part way thru you may think to yourself "this is about Adeniums and Japanese Bonsai". Don't you dare quit the article at this point! By the end you are going to see incredible photos of incredible plants in all 5 of the Rubiaceous ant-plant genera. In this article Jay is going to impress you with how he grows them, how he shows them and how he photographs them. This is a fantastic article ------ scoot, go read it now! Frank
  18. Frank

    2019 FORUM DONORS

    A big THANK YOU today to Jay Vannini for his $60 contribution that will fund our forum for the next 3 months!! We need a few more of you to step up and contribute as well. Please take your turn! Thank you, Frank, your Forum Administrator
  19. Frank

    2019 FORUM DONORS

    Fellow members, We continue to be the place to go on the internet for fantastic information and photos of the ant-plants that we love. The time has come for 6 of us to "show the love" by funding a month to complete our Invision fees for the last 6 months of 2019. Please step up and fund one of those month by sending $20 USD by paypal to frankinmi@aol.com with the “note” line on the paypal form saying “forum” and the name you want me to use for you in the chart for 2019 in the post above. (or let me know if you prefer to be acknowledged as “anonymous”). Thank you. Your participation is appreciated! Forum Administrator, Frank
  20. I water just like the other Rubiaceous ant-plants - I never let the growing media totally dry out. So when the top inch or two of the media gets dry I water.
  21. Finally, online today at: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/blumea/pre-prints/content-nbc-blumea-0485#
  22. Very impressive photos Philpatrick! Thank you very much for posting these. The quality of these photos is exceptional. I particularly like the lighting you have on the close-ups We hope you will continue with this study of the species and discover more information on some of the issues you raised - like the reason for the plug? Is it on all the flowers? Does it come off? Are the material the ants put on the plug their droppings or some other kind of material? Excellent work! Thanks again.
  23. This originally appeared on this site in the forum "Hydnophytum" within the topic "Hydnophytum longistylum" with this entry: "An international group spearheaded by Guadalcanal islanders is currently doing a survey of high altitude plants in the forests of Guadalcanal: https://www.idigbio.org/content/discovering-new-plant-species-guadalcanals-mountains It will be interesting to see if specimens of Hydnophytum longistylum are refound - and what other species might show up, perhaps H. kajewskii? UPDATE: The expidition took place in Sept. of 2015. A preliminary report is here: https://www.usp.ac.fj/news/story.php?id=1955" I inquired recently with The University of South Pacific’s (USP) Institute of Applied Science (IAS) who organized the expedition for more recent publications and results. They directed me to this resource: http://siflora.nmns.edu.tw/ In the "specimens" section here you can access 15 to 20 herbarium sheets for both Hydnophytum and Myrmecodia. The sheets are easy to enlarge and very legible. Most plants are unidentified and in the case of the Myrmecodias some are not even Myrmecodias. It is not clear to me that these are actually the results of the 2015 USP expedition but most of the sheets were collected in 2015 and 2016. These are worth looking at. The sheets are from a Taiwan institution. In addition I found this report on the 2015 USP expedition written by one of the fern collectors on the trip. Again, this is worth reading: https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2015/10/23/expedition-to-the-solomon-islands/ - and there are a number of further links at the bottom of this report.
  24. Hi Jeff, Look in this thread: http://myrmecodia.invisionzone.com/topic/450-hydnophytum-spec-fakfak-irian-jaya/?tab=comments#comment-2020
  25. Hi Mauspad, Welcome to the forum. I had someone else email photos last week of very similar leaves on Hydnophytums. You say this is in a tank near a window and this is the only plant affected. Was this plant in a position that might be colder than the other Hydnos in the tank? 62 is pushing the 60 that is considered the bottom line for safe night temperature, esp if it is long term. I would suggest you also examine both sides of the leaves with a very good hand lens or dissecting microscope looking for small mites. Winter is tough on Hydnopytums and Squamellaria guppyanum. They tend to yellow and than loose a lot of leaves. If your other Hydnos are not affected I would suggest isolating this plant. Perhaps grow it in a zip lock bag for a while and see what happens. This stops it from spreading to the other plants if it is insects Perhaps some other growers here have suggestions or experience?.
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