Call them nature’s own luxury high-rise condo rentals.
Squamellaria plants, from the same family as coffee and quinine, are fat aerial tubers perched high in tropical trees. In Fiji, one of the traditional names translates as “testicle of the tree;” they can grow to about the size of a basketball and sprout some leafy shoots. But that’s not the quirkiest thing about the plants: Some also invite different species of aggressive, easy-to-war ants to nest in the same plant’s multi-chamber innards. This setup is perfect for humans studying cooperation and mutualism, relationships in which both partners benefit in some way.
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