Myrmecophytes

An ant eating nectar from an extrafloral nectary.

Myrmecophytes are plants that have mutualistic relationships with ants. This relationship involves the ant protecting the plant from predators such as herbivores and in return, the plant provides the ant with food bodies or extrafloral nectaries which are highly nutritious to the ant. The plant also provides the ant with a place to live (a hollow structure called the domatia).

The ants may also feed the plants in a process called myrmecotrophy. This is where, the ants live on the plant, in the domatia. When the ant is living here, it produces piles of excrement and waste, which acts as nutrients for the plant.