Papua New Guinea: Tsoilik Island – Hydnophytum Papuanum
The most interesting plant was Hydnophytum papuanum, also known as the ant plant, an epiphytic plant native to Papua New Guinea and its islands. The bulbous trunk of the plant has a maze of corridors inside used by co-habitating ants (in fact the plant genus is considered a Myrmecophyte – a plant living in a mutualistic association with an ant colony – the plant provides ants with a house, while the ants provide pollination, seed dispersal, and defense). Interestingly, the plant is occasionally used as a domestic plant in the western world, together with an ant farm inside.
