Myrmecodia lamii

 ( Psychotrieae ) 

Myrmecodia lamii is a myrmecophilous (ant-loving) epiphytic, or sometimes terrestrial plant in the gardenia family Rubiaceae native to New Guinea. It has a greatly swollen hypocotyl region containing numerous tunnels and chambers utilized by certain species of ants as a colony. This hypocotyl can measure up to height by up to wide, by far the largest known hypocotyl.Blumea Volume 37 Issue 2 (1993) pages 322-323 with illustration The total height of the plant, including the black and white ringed branches, comes to . The flowers are white or pale blue.Bihrmann, "Caudiciforms - Myrmecodia lamii" The species was described in 1945 by Merrill and Perry. E.D. Merrill and Lily May Perry. JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM vol. 26 (1945) page 26