Piper cenocladum
| Piper cenocladum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Piperales |
| Family: | Piperaceae |
| Genus: | Piper |
| Species: | P. cenocladum
|
| Binomial name | |
| Piper cenocladum | |
Piper cenocladum is a species of shrub in the genus Piper (pepper plants). This plant and a few other closely related species are known as ant plants or ant pipers. P. cenocladum has broad, bright green leaves and grows in dim, swampy areas deep in the rainforest of Costa Rica and surrounding countries. It occurs in the rainforest understory.
The species is a myrmecophyte, a plant that lives in ecological mutualism with ants.[1] It has hollow petioles which provide a home for ants, especially of the species Pheidole bicornis.[2] The ants also use the plant as their main food source and defend it against predation by herbivorous caterpillars and fungi. Adding to the complexity of this food web is the beetle Tarsobaenus letourneauae, a specialized predator which lives in the plant's petioles and feeds upon the ants and their eggs, reducing their number and allowing more herbivores to consume the plant.
See also
References
- ^ Risch, Stephen J.; Rickson, Fred R. (May 1981). "Mutualism in which ants must be present before plants produce food bodies". Nature. 291 (5811): 149–150. Bibcode:1981Natur.291..149R. doi:10.1038/291149a0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4307388.
- ^ Dyer, Lee A.; Dodson, Craig D.; Beihoffer, Jon; Letourneau, Deborah K. (2001-03-01). "Trade-offs in Antiherbivore Defenses in Piper cenocladum: Ant Mutualists Versus Plant Secondary Metabolites". Journal of Chemical Ecology. 27 (3): 581–592. doi:10.1023/A:1010345123670. ISSN 1573-1561. PMID 11441447. S2CID 5880503.