
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('<div id="oa_widget"></div>');
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.openaire.eu/index.php?option=com_openaire&view=widget&format=raw&projectId=undefined&type=result"></script>');
-->
</script>Ant gardens are original associations involving a few species of arboricolous ants (i.e., nesting and dwelling on trees) with epiphytic plants (i.e., growing onto other plants), in which an ant society nests into the root system of a cluster of epiphytes. The presence of ants nesting in the roots of epiphytic plants is very common throughout the tropics. However, in most cases, this complex does not constitute an ant garden. Ant gardens, which are only known from the Neotrop-ics and SouthEast Asia [4], arise when a colony settles first on the supporting tree and builds a nest, followed by the growth of seeds incorporated into the nest [2, 3, 5]. In 1901 the German naturalist Ernst Ule was the first to describe and name this kind of ant-plant association, which he observed in Brazil. Ule hypothesized that the ants initiated the installation of the epiphytes, hence his characterization of the complex as a "garden." William Morton Wheeler, the leading specialist on ants of the first half of the twentieth century, thought this scenario was far-fetched, considering that the ants arrived secondarily in an already established structure. Ule's hypothesis was validated by field observations much later in the 1980s and 1990s.
[SDV.EE] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment
[SDV.EE] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment
| citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 4 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
