Ant Plants.

[greencrunch]

I have been doing research on the web on ant plants, plants that shelter ants in exchange for nutritional benifits, there are several different kinds including Neph. bical... most of the specie are suitable for low land neph conditions, is anybody out there growing any of these? love to hear about them.

 

[mindmaze128]

Yeah! My mom just got me a Dischidia pectinoides this week when she went to Florida. It is an awesome plant that looks really cool. Its an epiphytic vine that comes from Asia (I think thailand). It grows clam shaped pouches on the vine, which can become homes to ants in the wild. I've been treating it like an epiphytic orchid so far, near my Nepenthes. I'm planning to put it in a hanging basket next to my truncata. It's a very FUNKY plant!

Here's a picture!

I know it's not presented very well in the picture but gimme a couple of days to sort everything out. I'm running out of space!  

Joel

(Edited by mindmaze128 at 10:18 pm on April 10, 2002)

 

[carniflora]

I have a few 'ant-plants'. Hydnophytum becarrianum
grows along the coast here on mangroves . Further north on Cape York they grow very close to large clumps of nepenthes mirabilis .Some other Hoya & Dischidia are host to ants also , D.major is another native here .

 

[greencrunch]

There is a good web site at:
www.duke.edu/~nplummer/intro.html

 

[gardenofeden]

I grow Dischidia pectenoides as a houseplant. It seems quite tough if you harden it off. It likes a well-drained but moist compost and lots of light. It doesn't mind the cold, but just stops growing.