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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > The Ethnobotanical Garden
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Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature.
    #10493818 -

Passiflora incarnata has enlarged petiole glands, and it was not until yesterday that I figured out what they were for.  I was looking at the specimens I collected from the farm and saw tiny ants visiting the petiole glands.  I realized that these had to be producing nectar for the ants to eat, in exchange for protection.  Sure enough, after searching it, this relationship is pretty well documented, and incarnata seemingly employs the protection of both ants and wasps.  When I went to grab some pictures for shroomery this morning, I was struck by just how amazing this cooperation really is, and how complex it could be. 

The large leaf on the right shows pretty clearly the nectary and an ant at it.

The orange and black dragon looking thing is a lady bug larvae. This one blew my mind. It's waiting at the nectary for its prey.

A small red ant travels up the stem.

The ant encounters the larvae. The ant quickly runs away, circling the area twice, then running up and down the stem a couple times. Perhaps leaving pheromones warning of danger? Afterward other ants seemed to avoid this leaf in favor of the others further up.

Further up, the ants continue mining their spice from the nectaries at the top.

A Passiflora in my greenhouse without any guardians.


The interaction between the ants, the vine, and the larvae struck me as being incredibly complex.  The larvae did not strike the ant, but the ant seemed genuinely fearful of the larvae.  I wonder if the larvae was waiting for its traditional prey of aphids and wanted nothing to do with the ants full of formic acid? How did the ant recognize the larvae as dangerous? How did the larvae know to wait at the nectary and set a trap? Perhaps the nectary merely imitated the smell of honey-dew that aphids would secrete, and the larvae couldn't tell the difference? Perhaps Passiflora secretes a chemical that attracts lady-bug larvae, as well as ants for defense...  Not all Passifloras have enlarged nectaries, though many have far more toxic leaves than incarnata. Perhaps somewhere way back in the tapestry of evolution, it was deemed more efficient to employ insect guardians with a little nectar than it was to create toxins of its own.

At any rate, observing these interactions this morning was pretty mind blowing to me, and I wanted to share it with you guys.  At the very least, if you didn't already know, I hope you found it interesting to learn why incarnata has such large petiole glands, and the ants on it may not be a bad thing.


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The Plant Mage Guild

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Re: Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature. [Re: Horticulture]
    #10493854 -

totaly asome!! my ricin plant has the same thing goin on


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"Thousands of young people,
They say they come for drugs, dirty dancing, and pounding techno music."

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Re: Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature. [Re: Horticulture]
    #10497181 -

that's very interesting indeed, no macro function to get some better shots?

ants protecting bugs feeding on the sap of plants and then harvesting the honey dew they produce is a common thing, but this is almost the opposite of that.

should we assume that the plant has evolved this defence mechanism so that ants get their feed and then predate any bugs attacking the plant?

thanks for posting this, i had never heard about it until now :thumbup:


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Re: Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature. [Re: Dr. uarewotueat]
    #10498921 -

I'll try to get some shots of the ants protecting my castor bean plant, I had never seen this behavior before except with certain trees native to South America where the ants would use the tree as a home and defend it.

It finished flowering and the ants left, but the white bumps are where they like to hang out, the pink pods are the seed pods.



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:hanky:

Edited by Amberica (06/13/09 09:44 AM)

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Re: Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature. [Re: Prof. Astro]
    #10499015 -

cool shit :awesome:


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Re: Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature. [Re: Prof. Astro]
    #10499246 -

Amberica said:
I'll try to get some shots of the ants protecting my castor bean plant, I had never seen this behavior before except with certain trees native to South America where the ants would use the tree as a home and defend it.




There's an Australian succulent called Hydnophytum moseleyanum that actually forms chambers inside its caudex for ants to live in.  In return, waste from the ants serves as fertilizer.


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Re: Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature. [Re: runrun]
    #10499926 -

Here's a video about the acacia tree (I think this is the plant Amberica is talking about) that has the really developed relationship with the ants.  It's pretty incredible the scope of the symbiosis.  Complete food and shelter in exchange for protection from insects AND other competitor plants.  They have one of these trees with an ant colony at Missouri Botanical Garden.  I wants one.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/bugs-animals/ants-and-termites/ant_acaciatree.html


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The Plant Mage Guild

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Re: Passiflora incarnata, Ant Guardians, and the complexity of nature. [Re: Horticulture]
    #10507957 -

pretty sweet stuff.  many plants do this, even many cacti.  its neat to watch and learn, but frustrating in the growing area lol.

some things have pretty complex systems going on, and i always seem to not pay attention to the fact that often times it takes a handful of organisms to live together, rarely if ever just one.  its really cool when we start watching these things though and try to think of why and how etc....but no matter what i still feel at the end of the day we understand next to nothing about what they are doing and how they are doing.


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The seeds you won't sow are the plants you dont grow.

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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > The Ethnobotanical Garden
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