Flora of Andaman 11- 311210-PKA2

[Prashant awale]

Dear Friends,

 I had spotted this almost Football size bulb on a Mangrove tree  at Baratang (Andaman & Nicobar).

 

Date/Time: 22-12-2010 / 09:30AM

Location: Mangrove forest cover at Baratang

Habitat: Wild

 

regards

Prashant

[Pankaj Kumar]

Great. I imagine, I have seen such bigger galls in mangrove only in
Bhitarkanika.
And I think, there are two different species of orchids too.
Pankaj

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"TAXONOMISTS GETTING EXTINCT AND SPECIES DATA DEFICIENT !!"

Pankaj Kumar Ph.D. (Orchidaceae)
Research Associate
Greater Kailash Sacred Landscape Project
Department of Habitat Ecology
Wildlife Institute of India
Post Box # 18
Dehradun - 248001, India

[tanay bose]

nice size galls !! 

Tanay

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Tanay Bose

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Department of Botany.
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[Katarina]

Is this not a Hydnophytum or Mymecodia? Antplants that grow
epiphytically and can become quite large. It seems like the shoots
growing out of the "ball" has the right shape on the leaves.

I have just returned from theAndamans but only saw Hydnophytum on
Mount Harriet.

Regards
Katarina
from Sweden, currently -23 below zero.

On 31 Dec 2010, 12:12, Pankaj Kumar <sahanipan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Great. I imagine, I have seen such bigger galls in mangrove only in
> Bhitarkanika.
> And I think, there are two different species of orchids too.
> Pankaj
>

> On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Prashant awale <pkaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Dear Friends,
> >  I had spotted this almost Football size bulb on a Mangrove tree  at

> > Baratang (Andaman& Nicobar).

[Gurcharan Singh]

Resurfacing again for ID

Earlier feedback

Is this not a Hydnophytum or Mymecodia? Antplants that grow
epiphytically and can become quite large. It seems like the shoots
growing out of the "ball" has the right shape on the leaves.

I have just returned from theAndamans but only saw Hydnophytum on
Mount Harriet.

......Katarina

-- 
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ 

[J.M. Garg]

Forwarding again for Id assistance please.

Some earlier relevant feedback:

“Great. I imagine, I have seen such bigger galls in mangrove only in

Bhitarkanika.
And I think, there are two different species of orchids too.

Pankaj”

 

“Is this not a Hydnophytum or Mymecodia? Antplants that grow

epiphytically and can become quite large. It seems like the shoots
growing out of the "ball" has the right shape on the leaves.

I have just returned from theAndamans but only saw Hydnophytum on
Mount Harriet.

Regards
Katarina”

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Prashant awale <pka...@gmail.com>
Date: 31 December 2010 16:13
Subject: [efloraofindia:58367] Flora of Andaman 11- 311210-PKA2
To: indiantreepix <indian...@googlegroups.com>

--

With regards,
J.M.Garg (jmg...@gmail.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1

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For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (more than 1580 members & 66,000 messages on 30/3/11) or Efloraofindia website: https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database of around 4500 species)

[Ritesh Choudhary]

Katrina ji is right!

This is Hydnophytum formicarum of Rubiaceae. Popularly known as 'Ant
Plant'. (Myrmecodia tubers are spiky).

Recently I came across this plant in Vietnam where it is listed under
the threatened category. It is distributed from Andaman islands to S.
Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and
Australia.

This plant is of interest to botanist and ecologists owing to the
symbiotic association of ants and the plant.

Regards,
Ritesh.

[J.M. Garg]

A reply:

"Dear all,
Katarina is 100% correct. This is Hydnophytum formicarum (Rubiaceae) the famous ant plant. This plant mostly occurs in Mangrove trees but i have noticed them also in high altitude areas like Mount Harriet, Mount ford and Saddle peak in Andaman Islands. This is a very interesting plant having a bulb with numerous channels in it housing ant colonies. The ants in turn helps to protect herbivory to some extent but the main advantage to the plant if the excreta and other residues left but ant provides nutrition to the plant.
Thanks and regards,
Karthi"

Thanks, Dr.K. Karthigeyan

For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (more than 1600 members & 69,000 messages on 30/4/11) or Efloraofindia website: https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database of around 4500 species)

[Prashant awale]

Thanks Karthigeyan ji, Ritesh ji, Katarina ji for the ID.
Regards
Prashant