Glossary Details – Lecythidaceae

Glossary Details:

Title: Cecropia ant/plant interaction. Photo by S.A. Mori.

Description: Ants associated with a species of Cecropia based on an unvouchered plant from Brazil. The pads on the abaxial side of the leaf petiole are called trichilia (sing. = trichilium) and the small white bodies within the trichilia are Muellerian bodies (see inset). The ants, usually of the genus Azteca, inhabit the hollow stems. They enter the stem through holes they have drilled at at small depressions at the top of internodes called prostoma.

Term:

Myrmecophyte

Definition:

Referring to a plant with a symbiotic relationship with ants; in the Orchidaceae, this normally refers to a plant which has a specific species of ant inhabiting the roots or other structure such as the pseudobulb, e.g. in , the pseudobulb is hollow and inhabitated by ants; in (Melastomataceae), the bases of the leaves have domatia which are inhabited by ants.