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I began cultivating myrmecophyte plants from the Rubiaceae family in 2017, slowly getting to know different genera and species. Most of them were not commonly cultivated at the time, and many weren't even described or depicted. Quite quickly, I came across materials about the most spectacular and impressive species, Myrmecodia lamii. It's fascinating for several reasons. It's one of the largest, forming fantastical shapes due to the presence of multiple stems, and it grows in exceptionally inaccessible, beautiful, mountainous landscapes of central Papua. Of course, this is somewhat simplified. There are at least several other equally extraordinary ant plants, each characterized by some other remarkable feature. The history of introducing Myrmecodia lamii into cultivation in Europe, or perhaps globally, is relatively long. It's difficult to access all the information, but it seems most likely that the first attempts to bring these plants and their seeds to Europe occurred in 1994, 30 years ago, when Andreas Wistuba went on an expedition to Mount Doorman. Subsequent expeditions to that region took place in 2013 and 2015. I know of at least two collections where plants from that period still exist, but it's difficult to consider their cultivation a success. In 2015, Andreas Wistuba offered for sale two young Myrmecodia lamii plants. Although attempts to introduce this species into in vitro cultivation were unsuccessful, there is a lack of data on how many such attempts were made and how much effort was put into this area. From our current knowledge, it appears that in vitro cultivation of myrmecophyte plants is unfavorable, or perhaps this method is still underdeveloped. Plants obtained in this way typically exhibit developmental disorders that persist for years. For example, in the case of Squamellaria major, plants obtained from in vitro culture form specimens with multiplied tubers, which is quite different from the natural development of this species. It seems that the first successful cultivation of Myrmecodia lamii was achieved by Akihiro Ito from Japan. In 2022, he obtained seeds from his imported specimens, which germinated to produce a new generation of plants. This is just one of the many successes and discoveries of this extraordinary cultivator. My search for Myrmecodia lamii began in 2018, six years ago. I invested a lot of effort and later financial resources into these searches. This period was a time of getting to know many new people and attempting to purchase Myrmecodia lamii in Europe or Indonesia. I could write a lot about it, but whether it would be interesting for you, I doubt. It would be gossip. Currently, a very complex network of contacts has been established in Indonesia, and over the past year, imported Myrmecodia lamii plants have appeared in Europe, the USA, Asia, and Japan. I finally managed to import these plants last year after six years of searching and solving successive problems. Now, after about six months of cultivation, I can say that the results are very satisfying. Only one out of 15 plants died. All the remaining 14 have returned to normal growth. They've produced new roots, leaves, and started blooming profusely. I'm trying to pollinate every flower. So far, there are significantly fewer fruits with seeds than flowers, but the plants still produce enough of them. The seeds germinate easily, and the seedlings grow without any problems. We definitely need several years to understand the cultivation of Myrmecodia lamii, avoid losses in plants, and be able to obtain naturally looking specimens. A new era in the cultivation of Myrmecodia lamii and other myrmecophyte plants has begun.

Are you sure they represent M. albertisii? I have doubts, I will try to find more information.

Hi Frank, sorry for late reply. No, these are not photos from microscope, just macro lens with maximum magnification 5x. There were 4 anthers. These are my first photos of this type - close up of dissected flower - so following ones should be much better. My plant also grow quite slow. I tried to pollinate the flowers, but probably it is not self-incompatibility or there is something more to learn. Best regards, Piotr

I was searching for information about Mount Doorman Top (a great place with many Rubiaceae ant plants species) and found some problems. According to Wikipedia and an article about Nepenthes lamii, another name of Doorman Top is Mount Anggemuk. However, on Indonesian maps and on Google Maps, the name is different. Kemboe is Doorman Top, while Angemuk is a totally different one. Double "g" seems to be just spelling in different languages. https://mapcarta.com/15636274 Anybody could tell us more about it? Or provide some materials about this place? And the second question is, if Doorman Top is exceptionally abundant in Rubiaceae ant plants or it is just more often visited by travelers from the west to other mounts around? Photograph shows New Guinea Highlands. Wikipedia

Unfortunately not all of us are on Facebook, so I wanted to post some of my photos and comments also here. Hydnophytum mamberamoense, one of the most interesting Rubiaceae ant plants species in terms of systematics and first descriptions. As yet regarded as Hydnophytum species, but already in the "The tuberous epiphytes of the Rubiaceae 7: a revision of the genus Hydnophytum" by M. Jebb and C. Huxley has been suggested, that due to few atypical features “the species is placed in Hydnophytum more by default than by diagnosis”. Andreas Wistuba who found it in the wild, discovered that there are large differences between specimens observed by him and the best known herbarium specimen by Docters van Leeuwen 9540 from 1926. I contacted Rosemary Wise, who drew pictures in the above revision of Hydnophytum and asked her on what materials she based it on while working on the drawings of H. mamberamoense. She wrote that she probably rehydrated the flower from herbarium specimen as she never makes drawings based on any descriptions. When my young plant started to flower I took some pictures. Not the best ones, but it will take too much time before I will repeat them, so I wish to share them with our group. Even if a rehydrated flower would be less precise than a fresh one, I am very doubtful if this could cause such large differences in general shape of flower and petals profile. You can compare my pictures with Rosemary Wise's drawings. The leaves are identical as in Docters van Leeuwen 9540, but according to it and to the description of the species shoots can reach 50 cm long. As you can see on habitat pictures by Andreas Wistuba, the population found by him looks like Myrmecodia. I have a few hypotheses in my head. I think it can be a surprising mutation within one species, that gives 1 population long stems and the second very compact. Or these are 2 different species, that have completely by accident almost identical leaves. That is why I wanted to be sure if the drawing of the cross section from "The tuberous epiphytes of the Rubiaceae 7: a revision of the genus Hydnophytum" is correct or could it be simplified. Different flowers would mean different species. Andreas Wistuba regards this species as potentially representative of the new genus of Rubiacea ant plants. I know that some other botanists have other points of view and some research is planned.

If anyone (apart from Andreas Wistuba) cultivate and propagate Hydnophytum caminiferum? I lost my plant last year and it is still unavailable for me. I can buy it or offer quite many rare plants like Amorphophallus pendulus. However I don't have any less popular ant plants for swap.