This poisonous plant secretes a sugary nectar from its wounds
Bittersweet nightshade is a highly poisonous plant that poses danger to children, livestock, and pets who are attracted to its toxic berries.
But this plant is unable to defend itself against its herbivore enemies, including pests like flea beetles, which bite holes into its leaves.
According to a recent study published in the journal Nature Plants, the bittersweet nightshade has found a clever way to solicit protection from ant bodyguards.
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Plants normally close the wounds inflicted on their leaves quite quickly to prevent infections and the loss of resources. Rather than closing these wounds, the bittersweet nightshade secretes a sugary nectar from them — a substance that attracts the attention of hungry ant defenders who destroy any beetles that cross their path.
Though many plants attract herbivorous predators by using specialized glands to secrete sugary substances, the nightshade is the first plant that has been shown to do this without any nectar-making organs.
To test the effectiveness of the nectar secretions, a team of researchers from Germany and the Netherlands set off into the woods, where they applied a drop of either nectar or water to undamaged nightshade shoots. Then they waited.
After a month, the plants that had been given nectar were being patrolled by more ants and had far less damage inflicted on their leaves than the control plants.
It appeared that the ants had protected the nightshades against slugs, which they hadn’t previously been known to do.
Surprisingly, the ants were unable to stop the biggest threat to the nightshade — adult flea beetles — but they efficiently removed flea beetle larvae that had burrowed into young nightshade stems. Thus, the ants were stopping future generations of beetles from causing harm to the nightshades.
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