Thursday, July 8, 2010
Trillium Seeds and the Ants that Love Them
Trillium luteum which I only have one of apparently didn't produce any seeds unfortunately.
Trillium cuneatum flowered a bit and has a seed pod.
Trillium grandiflorum (my favorite) had loads of plants come up and flower. This produced the most seeds so far.
After flowering in the spring Trilliums produce a berry. To the left is T. grnadiflorum which varies in size, this is the largest mine created. To the right is T. cuneatum.
Inside the berry it's pretty much hallow besides a few seeds and fleshy material holding them in place.
Each seed has a package of eliasome on it. That's the white stuff, and ants find it irresistible.
They hallowed it out pretty fast.
I tried a few seeds with a Crematogaster colony and they didn't know what to do with them. Some nibbled at the food part while others tried stinging the seed.