B.Caapi (what are the yellow lumps on the underside of leaves)

[Tripitaka]

Have been curious for a while now as to the nature of the yellow glands on the underside of Caapi leaves, they appear to secrete a sticky substance that the ants and other insects love. In my imaginings it may be some kind of device setup by the plant to form a relation with friendly insects (plant guardians so to speak) Hmmmmmm I wonder!!!

[Torsten]

as some plants have them and other ddon't I presume that this is an insect or at least insect injury. the plant sap is sweet and the ants love it. they tend to carry sugar poducing bugs onto them and then harvest the juice/excrement.

[Gwydion]

Yeah, sounds like insects. And don't assume that they're involved in a happy symbiotic relationship, either.

My Ayahuasca is currently suffering an innundation of millions of little black aphids, who are sucking all the life out of the new shoots. And they're being directed there by none other than our friends the ants.

Nasty little buggers, the whole lot o' them!

[Tripitaka]

These "spots" are on the new leaves also, thus I dont think these are due to an insect problem, however the ants do appear to utilise the sweet sap that the plant produces. Interestted to hear that this does not occur on all B.Caapi plants, maybe natural selection. Would Darwin agree???

[Torsten]

insects would be much faster than your leaf could grow and thus your reasoning is faulty. Spidermites for example will have caused pimples on caapi leaves well before the leaf is even 10mm long.

[Guest racospermum]

Those yellow spots are not insect damage, but kind of glands or nectaries that are reported in botanical descriptions of Banisteriopsis and recognised by Amazonian indians.

Close inspection reveals they form junctions in the nervature of the leaf. They may express substances that are attractive to particular insects or perform some other function.

[This message has been edited by Torsten (edited 23 January 2002).]

[Guest Nozzle Boy]

Big it up yoself racoonsperm ! Re-spect !

[Darklight]

*sigh* another day, another Mulga incarnation...short lived though it is...if he had any friends they'd tell him, but as it is it's left up to the likes of us.

The post isn't even worth editing, as you'd only miss an opportunity to see him in his splendour again...it's a pity he can't put all this valuable energy into doing something positive somewhere else...

[waterdragon]

can't believe i caught a mulga post, usually edited out long before i get to see what all the fuss is about. i must be getting faster as i get older.

[Torsten]

Given the importance of this reply I have left the relevant text (and deleted all the crap). Maybe mulga has decided to become a little more constructive - it sure was more helpful then his last post

I was not aware of these facts about caapi and still wonder why they appear on some plants and not on others, even though they are all clones of each other. I was merely expressing my observations and opinions.

[Darklight]

Are you wasting breath defending yourself against tedious allegations *again* Torsten?

[Guest reville]

My caapi has the same yellow glands and thety appear normal and healthy - no ants yet.

I must say if you dont have one of these plants yet then get one. the growth is phenomenal!

I t has grown the height of my shadehouse and is now moving over the top

in 6 weeks it w4ent from two leaves to this. and i didnt even feed it - it just took off without my noticing it

its in a big self watering tub with tyhe galangal and a cactus ( imust get some more tubs!)

I sent the other to cairns. any word fractal?

[Torsten]

Originally posted by Darklight:

Are you wasting breath defending yourself against tedious allegations *again* Torsten?

No, I wasn't actually. I was interested in his post (the relevant bit). It prompted me to have a closer look at my plants today and as it turns out we are both right.

yes, caapi does have yellow spots, which are nectaries. All of my plants have them. There are between 4 and 12 on each leaf and they get pretty big when they get older. They don't seem to produce any marking on the top of the leaf though. I had never noticed these.

BUT..... what I was talking about (which was obviously different to the original post) were the hundred of little pimples on the underside of the leaf. obviously the sap sucking insects can access this nectar from anywhere on the leaf and when they do it leaves a light spot on the upperside of the leaf and a pimple on the underside.

[Guest Nozzle Boy]

Yeah - same for me as well WD ! I'm like, hey, cool, an un-edited Mulga post !?! It's like finding a rare Pokémon card or something - I'd imagine some gold-edged one, with like that #151 dude on it, Mew or something. Pokémon was the first card collecting thing that came to mind.

So anyways, yeah, Mulga, dooooooooo.

[Darklight]

You wait til Noz brings out the game on PC. Knock-out a Mulga incarnation. I'm up to level six, but CS is way ahead as always

[theobromos]

Get some ants to keep your vines helthy then?

[Torsten]

Originally posted by theobromos:

Get some ants to keep your vines helthy then?

You mean to keep the aphids healthy?? That's all they do - look after the aphids so they can proliferate.

[theobromos]

That depends on the type of ant, some don´t farm aphids. If the plant has extrafloral nectaries then why farm aphids when you can be fed direct from the plant? There are many species of ants that defend the host plant that feeds, and in some cases houses, them. The Pharaoh ant is a common pest that seemed to do that with my acacias a few years ago. Not as dangerous as those species found (by the unlucky) on some Cecropias but you might not want lethal stinging ants that object to any interference with their host plant.