Some acacia trees produce little energy/protein bars for ants.
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Some acacia trees produce little energy/protein bars for ants. They grow out of the tips of the leaves and plants offer them to get aggressive ants to live in the tree which protects it from herbivores. These are called beltian bodies. In other plants similar ant snacks grow on the surface of leaves called pearl bodies. Many plants have little drinking stations for nectar for ants called extra-floral nectaries.
Plants cater to bees with flowers and ants with snack bars and drink stations.
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Some acacia trees produce little energy/protein bars for ants. They grow out of the tips of the leaves and plants offer them to get aggressive ants to live in the tree which protects it from herbivores. These are called beltian bodies. In other plants similar ant snacks grow on the surface of leaves called pearl bodies. Many plants have little drinking stations for nectar for ants called extra-floral nectaries.
Plants cater to bees with flowers and ants with snack bars and drink stations.
Part of the point of these methods of attracting ants is that the plant feeds the ants just enough to keep them around. The ants *can't* easily stock pile a ton of food, but know there will be more in hours or a day.
By rationing the plant encourages the ants to hang around and defend the tree as their territory.
Aphids are doing something similar.
I wonder if bees ever also help flowering plants by scaring herbivores? Pollination is great, but could there be more to the story?
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Some acacia trees produce little energy/protein bars for ants. They grow out of the tips of the leaves and plants offer them to get aggressive ants to live in the tree which protects it from herbivores. These are called beltian bodies. In other plants similar ant snacks grow on the surface of leaves called pearl bodies. Many plants have little drinking stations for nectar for ants called extra-floral nectaries.
Plants cater to bees with flowers and ants with snack bars and drink stations.
@futurebird this is how the spaceships should be
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Part of the point of these methods of attracting ants is that the plant feeds the ants just enough to keep them around. The ants *can't* easily stock pile a ton of food, but know there will be more in hours or a day.
By rationing the plant encourages the ants to hang around and defend the tree as their territory.
Aphids are doing something similar.
I wonder if bees ever also help flowering plants by scaring herbivores? Pollination is great, but could there be more to the story?
The hummingbirds give the bees quite a wide berth.
I suspect that's part of the plan by the plants.
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Some acacia trees produce little energy/protein bars for ants. They grow out of the tips of the leaves and plants offer them to get aggressive ants to live in the tree which protects it from herbivores. These are called beltian bodies. In other plants similar ant snacks grow on the surface of leaves called pearl bodies. Many plants have little drinking stations for nectar for ants called extra-floral nectaries.
Plants cater to bees with flowers and ants with snack bars and drink stations.
@futurebird Macaranga trees go even further than extra floral nectaries, they even have tunnels in their stem that the ants use as highways and nesting sites. I remember spliting some small ones open to photograph the queens inside. The photo must be buried somewhere in my external hard disk.
Tropical foresters hate the tree once it grows large, they're incredibly hard to cut down since you have to deal with thousands of angry ants.
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Some acacia trees produce little energy/protein bars for ants. They grow out of the tips of the leaves and plants offer them to get aggressive ants to live in the tree which protects it from herbivores. These are called beltian bodies. In other plants similar ant snacks grow on the surface of leaves called pearl bodies. Many plants have little drinking stations for nectar for ants called extra-floral nectaries.
Plants cater to bees with flowers and ants with snack bars and drink stations.
@futurebird We saw this in the Serengeti: Acacia trees had dense and active ant populations. You mostly had to look close to see them, but if you disturbed the foliage, they boiled out of their hiding places. Our naturalist guide told us that they were a huge deterrent to giraffes who would otherwise feed on the leaves.
Ecosystems and evolution and the evolution of ecosystems are just breathtaking.
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