Ant Plant
Ant Plant
Hydnophytum formicarum
❦ ❧ ❦
Difficulty — IntermediateOf all the oddities on my shelves, the Ant Plant draws the most raised eyebrows. Above, a tidy spray of glossy green leaves; below, a swollen, knobbly tuber that looks for all the world like a potato that has been reading philosophy. Slice one open and you would find it honeycombed with hollow galleries. In the forest canopies of Southeast Asia, colonies of ants move into those rooms, and the scraps they leave behind feed their landlord. A fair arrangement. Rest easy, though: in a parlour she needs no tenants at all, and I have never once had to keep an ant farm to keep her happy.
Notes on Cultivation
☀Light
She lives perched in the treetops, so bright, dappled light suits her best — near an east window, or a few feet back from a brighter one. A little gentle morning sun is welcome. Harsh afternoon glare will bleach her leaves, and a dim corner leaves her leggy and slow.
❦Water
Water thoroughly once the top inch or so of her mix has dried, and let the excess drain away freely. The tuber holds a modest reserve, so she forgives a late watering far more readily than a soggy pot. A tuber that turns soft or dark at the base means I have been too generous; drooping, papery leaves mean I have forgotten her.
☁Humidity
She is a child of the rainforest and keeps her leaves broadest and glossiest in humid air — 60 percent or more is ideal. A pebble tray, a humidifier, or a spot among her leafy neighbours will help her through the dry months of winter heating.
✵Temperature
Steady warmth between 65 and 85 Fahrenheit pleases her. She is a tropical through and through, so keep her well clear of cold glass and draughty doorways, and never let her see a night below 55.
❧Soil
An airy epiphyte's mix of orchid bark, a little sphagnum and plenty of perlite, in a snug pot with good drainage. Set the tuber so it sits at or just above the surface — it is her heart, and she does not care to have it buried in damp.
❀Fertilizing
In the wild her ants do the feeding, and they are frugal cooks. A very dilute orchid or balanced fertilizer once a month in spring and summer is all she wants. Rest her from feeding entirely through the winter.
✿Propagation
She is grown almost entirely from seed. Fresh seed pressed onto damp sphagnum, kept warm and humid, sprouts within a few weeks, and each seedling begins swelling its own tiny tuber almost at once. Stem cuttings rarely build a proper tuber of their own, so for her I set the clear cup of Fluval Stratum aside and wait patiently for seed instead.
Field Observations
Do peer into the openings of the tuber with a lamp some evening. The galleries inside are not mere holes but a built house — some rooms smooth-walled, others warted — and it is a rare pleasure to own a plant that was, in a manner of speaking, designed for lodgers.
She grows slowly and stays small enough for a shelf or a hanging basket for years. I have no record of her being harmful to pets, but she does not appear on the common safety lists either way, so I keep her out of Winston's reach as a matter of prudence.
— faithfully recorded by Mr. Phileas Plant
✿Have one of these at home?
Mr. Phileas now travels in coat pockets — both kinds, as of August. The Plantry app identifies your plants from a photo, keeps care notes like these with you, and lets you ask him anything — free, on iPhone and Android. Step into the greenhouse →
