I was photographing my flowers of Ipomoea obscura Ethiopia, a nice orange-yellow gold flowering vine today. After photographing the face of the flower, I wanted to get some images of the sepals. When I turned one of the flowers sideways to start the sepals shoot, I saw these small black ants feeding from the extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) the flowers have at the base of the sepals. I had seen the EFNs before on this strain and 2 or 3 other strains of obscura but had yet not seen ant or other insect activity associated with them until today. Ron_Convolvulaceae had told me the ants tend to appear incapacitated as if they were sedated from the nectar. I noted such an effect because I could move the flower this way and that and those 2 ants did not budge off their EFN. I was quite excited to get a few photos that were in focus, and am happy to share them here with you.

Joseph