Before you squish that ant you find crawling on your native plant, consider this: ants play a vital role in supporting native plants. How? Read on! Myrmecophytes The word for a plant that has a symbiotic relationship with ants is a “myrmecophyte.” This is just a conglomeration of the Greek words for “ant” and “plant.” That relationship can take a number of different forms. In ecological terms, they are often mutualisms, where both the ant and the plant benefit from the interaction.