Albert's Greenhouse

I grow a lot of tropical ant plants in my greenhouse. These are plants which have evolved special relationships with ants - providing them with food and/or shelter in exchange for protection and fertilization.

This Myrmecodia is a southeast asian species which grows a hollowed out stem in which ants take up residence. I like the myrmecodias - though it is difficult to obtain more than the one or two species which have been introduced throughout the rare plant trade in the USA. They grow in interesting shapes and they seem to do well in generic tropical conditions - usually in hanging baskets so they don't rot for overwatering.

They also readily flower - producing miniscule white infloesences and then beautiful orange berries. If you leave the berries on the plant long enough ( see the picture), they eventually dry out and the seeds inside sprout into little additional plantlets, right on the stem of the original plant. Not that I'm recommending this. I just got lazy and I don't really need any more plants. It's usually better to take off the berries, remove the seeds, and immediately plant them in dampish long fiber sphagnum moss. It takes just a couple of years to get a mature plant this way.