Neat pics. That extrafloral nectar is, as you say, there to attract ants to defend tender growth. Lots of Sansevierias produce nectar from the nodes of flowering spikes or developing stolons like this one.

Thanks for the explanation. I never really noticed before, until I saw the ant and wondered what it was doing.

Are your blooms opening yet, Tropic?

Doesn't nectar came only from flowers? Could that be guttation? It's a fantastic pic, whatever it is!

Still not open Purp, but the Dracaenas have been flowering madly and swamping the area with their fragrance.

I couldn't imagine the ant showing much interest if it were just water. So maybe not outright nectar, but something in it that gets the ants interested. Although, there are a number of plants that do have extra-floral nectaries, but I don't know if Sans fall into that group.

@purpleinopp
@tropicbreezent

Sansevierias have both floral and extrafloral nectaries.

Tanowitz, B.D. and Koehler, D.L. 1986. Carbohydrate analysis of ï¬Âoral and extra-ï¬Âoral nectars in selected taxa of Sansevieria (Agavaceae). Ann. Bot., 58: 541-545

Glad I asked, that's interesting! TYVM for the info. Ants have much more nefarious intentions when they get on my plants, usually to farm aphids/scales, and to excavate the soil for their egg nursery.

Tropic, if you show those Drac blooms on the house plant forum, you should get tons of "ooohs and aaaahs," including from me. Someday I will smell one... hopefully sometime before waiting for scratch'n'sniff monitors to be invented.

The Sans have been flowering the past few nights, there's been sensory overload in the neighbourhood.

There's still new buds forming on my Sans and some still flowering. They've been at it for a fair while now. Usually I get a mass flowering and then they're done for the year.