Adenia glauca

[Katietheplantlady]

Ant drinking from extrafloral nectaries on adenia glauca.  I was worried when I first saw the ants all over the vines of this caudex plant, which I inherited from a friend, and thought, "uh oh...aphids?" Yet upon inspection found none.  Which prompted me to do some research, and I was fascinated to learn that it has extrafloral nectaries to attract the ants.  I mostly collect cacti and succulents, and was fascinated to learn about this symbiotic relationship, which I didn't know existed outside of what I thought of as the true "ant plants." This discovery, combined with my visits to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens greenhouse to see the lovely collection there, inspired my foray into the world of ant plants.  Very new to it (first hydnophytum specimens purchased from Frank at the Michigan Cactus and Succulent Society show in September) and excited to learn.   🥰

 

http://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/category/Flowering+Plants

[Frank]

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