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.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – when trilliums are in bloom! Since I can’t get out in the woods much right now, instead have some completely useless facts about red trilliums. Red trillium (Trillium erectum), like all trilliums, is a monocot, meaning it arises from a seed with a single cotyledon or seed leaf. Most plants are dicots, which have seeds with two cotyledons, so this makes trilliums a little bit special.