myrmecophyten.
/məːˈmɛkəfʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈmərməkoʊˌfaɪt/; see also myrmeco- comb. form Botany.
A myrmecophilous plant; spec. any of certain tropical epiphytes adapted by means of specialized structures to give shelter to ants, and in some cases to supply them with food.Myrmecophytes are found in a number of unrelated plant families. Particularly well-known are the epiphytes of the Indo-Malayan genera Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum (family Rubiaceae), which have swollen honeycombed stems inhabited by ants.
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the world > plants > by nutrition or respiration > [noun] > that lives in symbiotic relationship
myrmecophyte1892
1892 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 358 Herr O. Warburg proposes to call myrmecophilous plants ‘myrmecophytes’... He divides myrmecophytes into ‘myrmecotrophic’ forms which supply food to the ants, myrmecodomous forms which offer only shelter, and myrmecoxenous which afford both.
1902 J. M. Coulter Plant Studies 162 Very definite arrangements are made by certain plants for harboring ants, which in turn guard them against the attack of leaf-cutting insects and other foes. These plants are called Myrmecophytes.
1973 Sci. Amer. Dec. 62/1 Among these are the frequency of myrmecophytes, or ‘ant plants’, in which colonies of ants occupy hollow stems or special organs.
1994 Jrnl. Ecol. 82 233/2 Towards the end of the 19th century, the eminent naturalist Thomas Belt..formulated the hypothesis of mutualism between ants and myrmecophytes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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