Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A plant adapted to a mutualistic association with ants, as by having specialized cavities that shelter ant colonies.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A plant that affords shelter and food to certain species of ants which live in symbiotic relations with it. Special adaptations for this purpose exist; thus,
Acacia spadicigera has large hollows thorns, and species of Cecropia have stem cavities.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
plant that lives in association with a colony ofants . The degree of association varies and is assumed to besymbiotic in some cases.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun plant that affords shelter or food to ants that live in symbiotic relations with it
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From myrmeco- + -phyte.
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Examples
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In this study, we investigated the predatory behavior of the ant Azteca andreae which is associated with the myrmecophyte Cecropia obtusa.
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