Morning Glories: I. saintroanensis, 1 by Xeramtheum

Xeramtheum wrote:
Are the ants always congregating in the same areas? If they are, that's probably where the extrafloral nectaries (EFN) are. Ron said lots of plants have them including morning glory. Vigna Caracalla have very obvious ones .. I've been looking hard at mg to see if I can see them.

It is thought that the ants help in pollenation. I have come to the conclusion that that is not the case.. the ants seem to be defenders rather than pollenators. Every time I start handling the Vigna flowers to hand pollenate them the ants start attacking.

You might try touching the bud and moving it a bit and see what the ants do. The picture is a closeup of the EFN's and ants on the Vigna.

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