Frank

I am very pleased to announce that new leadership has stepped up to keep our Forum on the internet and growing. His forum name is Jelle and he is one of our European members. Those of you who check in and contribute to the various Facebook ant-plant groups will recognize that he is active on that stage as well and has a growing collection and interest in ant-plants. I expect that he will have more to say about himself now that I have introduced him to the group. Please give him the support he needs to keep what we have here growing. For my part I will no long function as a Moderator on the Forum but I will remain as a member and contributor. I will be contributing a posting about one of my favorite new ant-plants soon - Myrmecodia solomonensis. Thanks to all of you for the seven years you have supported me and the Forum. Frank

I am unable to continue maintaining this forum on the internet. I need someone to step up and take control of the forum and its administration by the end of this month or it will be lost - gone from the internet forever. I want to thank all of you who have helped me to support this forum for many years. It is not rocket science to do this job. You need to pay $20 a month to invision, erase the spam that shows up some days and promote the forum in ways you see fit. If you want the job contact me at frankinmi@aol.com. If no one wants the job you can kiss the forum goodbye! Thank you, Frank

Here is one of my M albertisii, the second plant is the same as first just older. And here is a more recent photo

This is the plant i got by this name from Andreas Wistuba last summer? Some body has something wrong.

WOW! IT IS ONLY FEBRUARY 17th AND THE FORUM IS FULLY FUNDED FOR 2023!!!!!! A huge shout out to 3 longtime members of the forum who each have funded multiple months of the 2023 Forum for us: Jay Vannini, Ken Howell and Philpatrick. Thank you very much men, this is very generous of you! Your generosity is greatly appreciated. AS TO THIS COMING YEARS: I intend to keep this Forum alive and accessible because there is so much information and so many exceptional photos of ant-plants that have accumulated here. I invite all our members and guests to contribute to this endeavor as well - with postings and/or monetary contributions. (Postings anytime and funding for next year in January of 2024.) With our monthly fee to our internet host "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 email me at my wife's paypal account: cathiemelina@aol.com with 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” or perhaps as "guest") and $20 for each month you want to fund. Thank you very much for your contribution. (Before any strange rumors start to fly let me assure you we are using my wife's paypal account only because paypal has messed with mine and restricted access to it.) First in line to contribute for the year 2023 is the internationally acclaimed grower of Aroids and Ant-plants Jay Vannini. Jay is one of the original members of this forum and has posted over 200 high quality messages on this site. Thank you immensely Jay for your postings to our forum and now for the $100 contribution that will fund the first 5 months of 2023 for us. Very much appreciated!!! Once again Ken Howell has funded multiple months of the Forum - 3 months this year. This is the 6th straight year that Ken has funded multiple months for us!!!!! You are a superstar Ken, Thank you so very much! Philpatrick is best know here for his postings of high quality and high resolution microscopic photos on the Forum. Thank you very much Philpatrick for stepping up with this very generous funding of 4 months of the Forum for this year as well! All your contributions are appreciated. Thank you very much to Jay, Ken and Philpatrick for their participation in the Forum and their donations. Thank you all our members, Forum Administrator, Frank Omilian 2023 CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FORUM: January - Jay Vannini February - Jay Vannini March - Jay Vannini April - Jay Vannini May - Jay Vannini June - Ken Howell July - Ken Howell August - Ken Howell September - Philpatrick October - Philpatrick November - Philpatrick December - Philpatrick

The last few months this plant has produced some flowers. No sign of fruits yet. So I pulled out my cameras and microscope and took some photos. Not the best photos I have ever taken but perhaps good enough to gets us some confirmation of it being in the alata complex or even to narrow it down to a particular species. The flower buds are not very large and they open just barely and not for a very long time. My ruler in the photos is numbered in centimeters so the distance between each of the short unnumbered lines is a millimeter. Microscopic photo of a cut open flower bud. The almost triangle shaped piece of tissue pinned just above the bottom of the stamens got torn off the bottom of the floral tube, so its 3 mm added to the 9 mm of the intact portion of the flower means a flower length of at least 12 mm. The stamens clearly number 4. This photo confirms the long style and shows that the stigma has at least 2 parts. Also here is the first confirmation of upright pointing hairs lining the bottom of the floral tube. This last photo confirms that the 4 stamens are positioned near the bottom of the floral tube and the multitude of upright pointing hairs in the throat of the tube.

I bought a plant of this species from Andreas in May of 2019. Looking at his photos above it was obvious this plant would grow well hanging over the lip of a pot. Since I grow under lights in a basement hanging baskets are not one of my favorite ways to grow so I planted it instead in a 6 inch shallow vanda tray and slid that under one of my 4 foot T5 fluorescent fixtures. You can see here that it grew well in that situation so it came time to upsize the pot. As it grew over the edges of that Vanda tray I moved it into a much larger tray, 22 inches by 11 inches : If you look closely at the the branches to the left and right side of the tray you can tell that each grew into another 6 inch vanda tray. So when it comes a time to propagate and transplant I can snip the narrow neck where it enters into the two side trays and lift those trays out with minimal root disturbance.

Epiphytic Myrmecophytes: Bizarre Wonder of Nature 2022 HI, it is unclear to me how this link works and if it will work here going forward. But lets give it a try as this is a monumental work that needs to be of easy access given the dearth of good ant-plant information. Serious kudos to Derrick for his work over the years for putting this information together and making it freely available. Thank you very much Derrick! https://drive.google.com/.../1BISi7muZ8PUV705xImAH_0Pi...

Hi, Welcome to the Forum. Yes, there is an extensive list kept by Derrick Rowe on his facebook group called "Epiphytic Myrmecophytes" His 2021 version of the work is available there in the very first listing on the site. Clicking there will get you to the Dropbox where he keeps the magnificent work available to the public. He is currently working on the 2022 revision and he has some of that new material already detailed on the facebook page further down the page.

Anyone else grown this species from seed? These 3 seedlings are about 3 years old in 3 inch pots and have more ant entry holes than any other ant-plants I have ever grown from seed.

Thank you very much to all who have contributed to the funding of our forum this year and in all the previous years! AS TO THIS YEAR, 2022: Every time I sign on to our Forum the first thing I check is who is currently online. Over 90% of the viewers are "guests". Many of our original and early members have left or visit only occasionally. This is not really a surprise; there has always been an "ebb and flow" to what group of plants are popular and being sought out in any given year. The "tide is clearly out" on ant-plants right now. I intend to keep this Forum alive and accessible because there is so much information and so many exceptional photos of ant-plants that have accumulated here. I invite all our members and guests to contribute to this endeavor as well. With our monthly fee 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 email me at franksantplants@gmail.com with 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” or perhaps as "guest"). I will email you back with a paypal address for you to send your donation to. Thank you very much for your contribution. First in line to contribute this year is Shoal Creek Succulents, a USA grower selling on eBay and Etsy with excellent reviews and feedback. Thank you very much! Yesterday, Jan. 3rd, was a great day! Two of our members stepped forward to fund a month of the forum. Thank you very much Jules and also Marcel Van Den Broek!! Your support is appreciated! Once again Ken Howell has funded 2 months of the Forum. This is the 5th straight year Ken has done this for us!!!!! You are a superstar Ken, Thank you very much! Maxwell Solomon was inspired to contribute here after he made some recent buys from Andreas's Carnivorous Plant Shop and was impressed with how much additional information and photos he found about those plants here. Glad you found us helpful Maxwell! Thanks a bunch for your contribution! July, August and September were funded by me, Frank Omilian, the Forum Administrator. I can't be asking each and every one of you to fund the forum and not do it myself! So today I was doing some desk work and watching the leaves fall (Michigan, USA) when I got an email from a long time member who wanted to anonymously fund the last 3 months of the forum's cost for this year! WOW, yes please! And thank you so much. Your generosity is much appreciated! Thank you to Mr. Anonymous and all who have made their mark in 2022 by stepping up and helping with the forum funding. MISSED YOUR CHANCE? The posting for "2023 Forum Donors" will be on this page soon. Thank you all, Forum Administrator, Frank Omilian 2022 CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FORUM: January - Shoal Creek Succulents, Thank you very much for starting the year off for us! February - Jules, Thank you very much. Jules is one of our newest members. March - Marcel Van Den Broek, Thank you very much for helping to keep us going forward. April - Ken Howell, You are a superstar Ken! Thank you so very much. May - Ken Howell, Your consistent support is deeply appreciated! June - Maxwell Solomon, Glad you found valuable info here Max, thanks for your support! July - Frank Omilian, Forum Administrator August - Frank Omilian, Forum Administrator September - Frank Omilian, Forum Administrator October - Anonymous long time member, has made Christmas come early this year by funding the last three months of the forum for this year. Thank you so much!!!!!! November - Anonymous long time member, Thank you oh so much!!!!!! December - Anonymous long time member, Thank you oh, oh so much!!!!!!

Home / Blumea - Biodiversity, Evolution and Biogeography of Plants Expansion of the fern genus Lecanopteris to encompass some species previously included in Microsorum and Colysis (Polypodiaceae) Download Article: Download (PDF 435.8 kb) Authors: Perrie, L.R.; Field, A.R.; Ohlsen, D.J.; Brownsey, P.J. Source: Blumea - Biodiversity, Evolution and Biogeography of Plants Publisher: Naturalis Biodiversity Center DOI: https://doi.org/10.3767/blumea.2021.66.03.07 This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence. < previous | view fast track articles Abstract References Citations Supplementary Data The fern genus Microsorum is not monophyletic, with previous phylogenetic analyses finding three lineages to group not with the type species, but to form a grade related to the 13 species of Lecanopteris. These three lineages have recently been recognised as separate genera: Bosmania, Dendroconche, and Zealandia. Here, we explore the morphological characterisation of Lecanopteris and these other three lecanopteroid genera. While the traditional circumscription of Lecanopteris has seemed sacrosanct, its defining morphological character states of rhizome cavities and ant brooding associations occur in other lecanopteroid ferns and elsewhere in the Polypodiaceae. Instead, we suggest that the morphological characterisation of an expanded Lecanopteris including the Dendroconche and Zealandia lineages is just as good, if not better, with the pertinent character states being the absence of sclerenchyma strands in the rhizome and at least some fronds having Nooteboom’s type 5 venation pattern. This wider circumscription is also better able to accommodate phylogenetic uncertainty, and it means that groups of species traditionally placed together in a single genus are not distributed across different genera. General users familiar with the narrower circumscription of Lecanopteris will not be significantly disrupted, because there is little geographic overlap with the lineages added to the genus. Consequently, we make new combinations in Lecanopteris for 11 species and one subspecies. Keywords: Bosmania; Colysis; Dendroconche; Zealandia; lecanopteroid; microsoroid; taxonomy Appeared or available online: November 16, 2021

Home / Blumea - Biodiversity, Evolution and Biogeography of Plants Hoya buntokensis (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae), a new myrmecophytic species and Hoya wallichii subsp. tenebrosa, a new subspecies from Borneo (Kalimantan, Indonesia) Authors: Rahayu, S.; Rodda, M. Source: Blumea - Biodiversity, Evolution and Biogeography of Plants Publisher: Naturalis Biodiversity Center DOI: https://doi.org/10.3767/blumea.2021.66.03.06 This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence. Abstract References Citations Supplementary Data We describe a new Hoya species from Central Kalimantan, H. buntokensis, and a new subspecies of H. wallichii from West Kalimantan, Hoya wallichii subsp. tenebrosa. Hoya buntokensis is part of a group of four species that form specialised leaf structures harbouring ants (here defined as megadomatia), and it is most similar to H. undulata. Hoya buntokensis differs from H. undulata in lamina margin (flat vs undulate); shape of corona lobes outer processes (fan shaped vs elliptic), and in the pollinarium morphology (corpusculum larger than pollinia vs corpusculum smaller than pollinia). Both H. wallichii subsp. wallichii and H. wallichii subsp. tenebrosa are slender plants with ovate to oblong, thinly coriaceous glabrous leaves, slender peduncles with 1 or 2 flowers open at a time, and broadly campanulate corollas. Hoya wallichii subsp. tenebrosa differs from H. wallichii subsp. wallichii in corolla colour (dark purple with a paler edge vs white-cream), corona lobe shape and surface (broadly elliptic, spreading and with a minute inner process, almost black with a velvety surface vs kidney-shaped, erect and with a well-developed acuminate inner process, purple with a shiny surface). Keywords: Hoya darwinii; Hoya mitrata; Hoya undulata; Hoya wallichii; Southeast Asia; ant plant; epiphyte; heath forest; megadomatium; myrmecophyte Appeared or available online: November 15, 2021

Hi Piotrsw, Very nice set of photos! Thank you for posting them here. Are you using a microscope to get those close up photos? Were there only 2 anthers in the flower or did you remove 2 to get the photo? There are some unique things about this flower, I have to say I like it. That ring of hairs is the tightest I have ever seen and that anther color is fantastic. I am now even more anxious to get my H. manberamoense to flower. I hope you will continue to provide content here on the Forum, this really is good stuff! I got my manbramoense from Andreas Wistuba in May of 2019. It has never grown like blockbusters but it is doing ok considering it has a fungus disease in the leaves that I have been unable to cure. I do like the caudex. The photo here was taken today with the plant in a 3-1/2 inch pot.