Platycerium ant plants

[Hatchimotoshinzan]

I noticed that one other member identified P.superbum from Queensland as having a relationship with ants. On this point there might be a difference of opinion as the motive or evolutionary induced gain fro such a partnership. When I used to hike the Everglades thirty years ago vittaria lineata and Polypodium aureum were common sites in Palmetto canopies. These were always also inhabited by Carpenter ants. Both gained some kind of advantage but are not obligate.

This is common with many types of epiphytes. Of the 18 or  species of Platycerium (the number gets bigger and smaller each day) and several hundred cultivars there are only two that I know have evolved with ants. The first is Platycerium madagascariense, from the cloud forests of N.E. Malagasy. and Platycerium Ridleyi, from around 30-40 meters in the canopy closer to sea level in parts of Malesia.

They have two types of leaves, sterile fronds and fertile fronds. The two plants are not closely related but their sterile fronds are extremely similar. They have a waffled expression many have compared to brain matter. The sterile fronds completely enclose around a branch and in time more layers of these will form. This has been one of the problems in watering these in horticulture.The waffled areas provide natural tunnels for the ants and a multi storied "domatia" over time.

 P.madagascariense is probably more closely related to P.elissii and P.ridleyi to P.coronarium based on spore patch distribution. Both of these ferns are considered generally either short lived for very difficult to grow. The original introduction of P.madagascariense saw the oldest plant dying at age five. There is something they have in common besides the sterile  fronds:They are always colonized by ants-even in doors in a house. Another interesting point is that they are considered to be the utmost bug-magnets. Everything will attack them and have no interest in any other one of your plants. A single roach such as Periplaneta americana will chew the bud out of a large plant-killing it-in the course of an evening. I now grow these inside in chambers.

 

Regards

[Derrick]

As far as I am aware nectaries have never been reported for Platycerium superbum or P. bifurcatum, the commoner Australian species, so the only attraction to ants is probably the nesting opportunities of the plant's humus accumulations.  Therefore, the relationships with ant species (and a range of other animal and plant inhabitants) are very probably purely opportunistic.  Other humus storing fern species such as at least some Drynaria have nectaries, so these may be accepted as myrmecophytes in a wide sense.

  In my book, I placed both of these Platycerium species in a section that provided an over view of epiphytes, because their ant relationships were very loose. However, I have seen and photographed instances where humus impounding ferns were probably only surviving because they had germinated very close to a myrmecophytic species.

http://biosci-labs.unl.edu/Emeriti/keeler/extrafloral/Polypodiaceae.htm

[Derrick]

This humus impounding fern is growing in such an open position that catching humus must be near to impossible.  It is also subject to periodic drought, on this the dry side of Taveuni Island.  I suspect survival is due to the juxtaposition of the ant orchid.

Fiji Photo's 013, Asplenium australasicum with Grammatophyllum elegans, Taveuni Island, Fiji..JPG]

[Andreas Wistuba]

I noticed that one other member identified P.superbum from Queensland as having a relationship with ants. On this point there might be a difference of opinion as the motive or evolutionary induced gain fro such a partnership. When I used to hike the Everglades thirty years ago vittaria lineata and Polypodium aureum were common sites in Palmetto canopies. These were always also inhabited by Carpenter ants. Both gained some kind of advantage but are not obligate.

This is common with many types of epiphytes. Of the 18 or  species of Platycerium (the number gets bigger and smaller each day) and several hundred cultivars there are only two that I know have evolved with ants. The first is Platycerium madagascariense, from the cloud forests of N.E. Malagasy. and Platycerium Ridleyi, from around 30-40 meters in the canopy closer to sea level in parts of Malesia.

They have two types of leaves, sterile fronds and fertile fronds. The two plants are not closely related but their sterile fronds are extremely similar. They have a waffled expression many have compared to brain matter. The sterile fronds completely enclose around a branch and in time more layers of these will form. This has been one of the problems in watering these in horticulture.The waffled areas provide natural tunnels for the ants and a multi storied "domatia" over time.

 P.madagascariense is probably more closely related to P.elissii and P.ridleyi to P.coronarium based on spore patch distribution. Both of these ferns are considered generally either short lived for very difficult to grow. The original introduction of P.madagascariense saw the oldest plant dying at age five. There is something they have in common besides the sterile  fronds:They are always colonized by ants-even in doors in a house. Another interesting point is that they are considered to be the utmost bug-magnets. Everything will attack them and have no interest in any other one of your plants. A single roach such as Periplaneta americana will chew the bud out of a large plant-killing it-in the course of an evening. I now grow these inside in chambers.

 

Regards

 

Do you have spores of P. madagascariense?

All the best

Andreas

[Stone Jaguar]

Howdy:

 

I have always understood that both of these epiphytic fern species have very well-documented relationships with ants in nature, with Platycerium madagascariense in a complex relationship with both an Albizia sp. as a host tree, together with the orchid growing together in an apparent obligate relationship (for it), Cymbidiella pardalina. For those with access to Alfred Graf's classic "Exotica" series, there are excellent B&W illustrations taken in situ documenting this mutualism.

 

Excepting the mimosa, I grow all of these plants and would note that none of them are particularly challenging in cultivation - with the right conditions - grown on from artificially-propagated sources. I have, like many others, had miserable luck on multiple occasions trying to re-establish wild-collected P. ridleyii, while spore-grown plants prove rather slow but certainly not genuinely hard to grow. I would emphasize that very bright light, good ventilation and above all, excellent water quality is, IMO, extremely important to succeed with both of these extremely attractive ferns. Like other platys that do not offset P. ridleyi is, of course, especially vulnerable to chewing insects since a sustained attack on its growing point that takes out the apical meristem will ultimately kill the fern. Unlike others' experiences, I have not found either to be especially attractive to pests, and none of my plants have ant colonies in them, in either country. All of my plants are grown mounted, either on cork plaques or on outer faces of hardwood or plastic vanda baskets.

 

Platycerium madagascariense is quite a vigorous grower under cool tropical conditions in both central Guatemala and northern California. My mother plants in the Bay Area grow and offset vigorously and attract positive commentary from everyone, including several botanical garden curators, who pass through the greenhouse. I am currently setting up two flowering-sized Cymbidiella pardalina to be grown together with P. madagascariense in double baskets early next year.

 

Andreas: both spp. have reproductive fronds sporing on a near constant basis in both of my growing areas. Sadly, no volunteers evident from either, while other exotic platy volunteers do show up from time to time. Understand that P. ridleyii has been recruited on coco fiber plaques nearby in some collections in SE Asia, but mostly done in vitro.

 

Attached, an over-saturated phone photo of one of my young Cymbidiella pardalina last week.

 

 

 

J

[Derrick]

I was aware of the reported ant relationships of P. madacascariense & P. ridleyi, but the orchid is completely new to me.

http://www.sdorchids.com/articles/cymla_article.htm

[Derrick]

It would seem that  ant relationships in more platyceriums than P. madagascariense and P. ridleyi may be far more important to them than what I have understood until recently.

See P. elephantotis & P stemaria.

Also I am seeing hints in the literature that fern species that are often found in symbioses with ants may have more occurrences of CAM than other ferns.  This may have an impact on husbandry regimes.

[glen chappell]

Would you mind telling us more about your P. madagascariense chambers please?

I've been considering the same thing but haven't spoken to anyone else who has done so.

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

I noticed that one other member identified P.superbum from Queensland as having a relationship with ants. On this point there might be a difference of opinion as the motive or evolutionary induced gain fro such a partnership. When I used to hike the Everglades thirty years ago vittaria lineata and Polypodium aureum were common sites in Palmetto canopies. These were always also inhabited by Carpenter ants. Both gained some kind of advantage but are not obligate.

This is common with many types of epiphytes. Of the 18 or  species of Platycerium (the number gets bigger and smaller each day) and several hundred cultivars there are only two that I know have evolved with ants. The first is Platycerium madagascariense, from the cloud forests of N.E. Malagasy. and Platycerium Ridleyi, from around 30-40 meters in the canopy closer to sea level in parts of Malesia.

They have two types of leaves, sterile fronds and fertile fronds. The two plants are not closely related but their sterile fronds are extremely similar. They have a waffled expression many have compared to brain matter. The sterile fronds completely enclose around a branch and in time more layers of these will form. This has been one of the problems in watering these in horticulture.The waffled areas provide natural tunnels for the ants and a multi storied "domatia" over time.

 P.madagascariense is probably more closely related to P.elissii and P.ridleyi to P.coronarium based on spore patch distribution. Both of these ferns are considered generally either short lived for very difficult to grow. The original introduction of P.madagascariense saw the oldest plant dying at age five. There is something they have in common besides the sterile  fronds:They are always colonized by ants-even in doors in a house. Another interesting point is that they are considered to be the utmost bug-magnets. Everything will attack them and have no interest in any other one of your plants. A single roach such as Periplaneta americana will chew the bud out of a large plant-killing it-in the course of an evening. I now grow these inside in chambers.

 

Regards

 

[Derrick]

[Entomology • 2010] Pterobius itiokai • A new genus and species of myrmecophilous aphodiine beetle (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae) inhabiting the myrmecophytic epiphyte Platycerium sp. (Polypodiaceae) in the Bornean rainforest canopy.  http://novataxa.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/2010-pterobius-itiokai.html