Plant vendors are fond of inventing names and they call this plant as the Ant Fern. They call it as such because ants live inside the puffs of the plant.

Plant vendors are fond of inventing names and they call this plant as the Ant Fern. They call it as such because ants live inside the puffs of the plant.

Yesterday while on my weekly marketing, I dropped by Cartimar’s plant section to see if they still have the Champaca plant I saw before. I was glad to see it is still there hiding in between other tall plants. I reserved it from my regular vendor for someone who has been asking about this. While going around the other plant stalls, what caught my attention is this unusual epiphyte that I have never seen before.

Closeup of the plant showing the tiny fushia colored flowers and the puff where the ants live. They cling to barks and branches of other plants or trees for their sustainance.

Closeup of the plant showing the tiny fushia colored flowers and the puff where the ants live. They cling to barks and branches of other plants or trees for their sustainance.

One thing I like about going to plant nurseries is that I almost always come across plants or flowers I have never seen before. Although Cartimar plant market has very limited selection, one sometimes finds a new plant or flower.

We get attracted to some plants because of their instrinsic beauty or sometimes because of their rarity or curiosity. I am sharing this discovery here not because I find it beautiful – you may disagree- but for its curiosity and rarity. I would not want an ant community in my garden. This plant must have been collected in the mountains of Quezon and could even be an endangered specie but we don’t really know. We also don’t know if it will thrive outside its original environment

Postscript: 9 May 2009
On further research, I found out that this epiphyte is called Dischidia Oiantha with a common name Dischidia. It is actually not rare but endemic to the Philippines that grows in thickets and forests at low altitudes.