myrmecochory!!

The soft brush of autumn is stippling patches of white

and pink into the Woodland Garden.

We introduced a few cyclamen hederifolium seedlings around 2011 and as usual, nature’s own gardeners have taken over.

Cyclamen seeds are naturally dispersed by ants. The ants then carry the seed into their nest, eat the outer elaiosome and discard the seed. 

Seed dispersal by ants is called myrmecochory. 

The seeds have a sticky covering called an elaiosome which attracts ants. 

When the seeds germinate, they eventually build

really big tubers just beneath the soil surface. 

When the plant has finished flowering, the glossy patterned leaves remain and continue to adorn the shaded ground beneath trees until spring.

The Woodland Garden is snow white in the spring. We lift and transplant the best clumps of snowdrops after flowering and we now have hundreds of clumps.

The cyclamen success has inspired us to accelerate the good work of the ants by adding cyclamen plug plants.

Our aim is for the autumn garden to be as pink and white in the autumn as it is white in the spring.