Mucilage‐Bound Sand Reduces Seed Predation by Ants But Not by Reducing Apparency: A Field Test of 53 Plant Species

摘要

We tested Fuller and Hay’s defen- sive hypothesis in 53 plant species, finding that a mucilage-bound sand coating reduced predation by harvester ants in almost every species tested. While muci- lage has many possible functions and probably did not evolve for the purpose of seed defense, in many dry areas it likely has this ecological function.