That the world’s plants and insects often have symbiotic relationships is no secret. We’ve all seen bees, butterflies and birds feeding on the nectar that flowers of all types produce, picking up pollen as they go, which they transport to other plants, and on an on it goes, much to our betterment and our very survival. Oh, and did I forget to mention that bats also serve as pollinators?

The fact is, however, that many more creatures take part in this ritual than we might be aware of, among them being the lowly ant that is the bane of homeowners and picnickers everywhere.

It came to my attention a while back that at least one species of flower – the peony (genus Paeonia) – attracts small black ants, which seem to find something about it irresistible, and with good reason. Were it not for the ants, the peony’s flowers might never open, and we would be deprived of the lush rich beauty of a most beautiful and fragrant blossom.

I first noticed this on a peony growing near where I lived. While not on my own property, the plant was striking enough for me to stop that day and take a few photos of it. Now, I never wear my glasses when taking photos, so I often miss many small details that the camera delivers to me later when I upload them. (I’ve had more than a few “Oh my!” moments as a result.)

This is, at any rate, how I managed to get a shot of a pale pinkish-white Paeonia that was in the process of being visited by several small black ants whose presence I was not even aware of until my computer’s photo processor revealed them to me. They were not of the large carpenter variety that sneaks into our homes, takes up residence in our walls and cupboards, and raids the sugar bowl or the honey jar, but the smaller though equally industrious species that seems drawn by something that particular flower has to offer. And indeed it does, as my research showed, and for reasons I never could have imagined.

A close look at an unopened peony bud reveals a dense structure of tightly closed petals in the shape of a ball. The bright green sepals enclosing the bud seem reluctant at this point to divulge their secrets and allow us a glimpse into their inner spaces. Hints of the flower’s color may appear on the very edges of those sepals. But otherwise, it remains a mystery until conditions are right for it to open. And this where those ants come in.

It seems that peonies, or at least some varieties, produce a type of nectar whose flavor is highly appealing to those ants. By mere virtue of their attempting to get to the nectar by squeezing in between the tightly-closed petals, said ants actually force the flowers to open.

It is at once a very basic but remarkable collaboration between two very distinct species of living things, and without which certain types of peonies would not exist. The ants do not eat any part of the flower, but are focused entirely on getting to the nectar, where they also inadvertently pick up of some of the pollen that they then transport to other peonies.

That most information is so readily available nowadays made this simple for me, but I think back to a time when I would have had to hop in my car and take a trip somewhere to research just why it is that black ants seem to love peonies. And where would one even have begun to look in those “good old days” for something like this? An encyclopedia at the library? A gardening book? A book about insects? At a local greenhouse or plant nursery?

The fact remains that, without these tiny creatures, we might never have known the beauty that a peony is capable of. What else might be going on in the plant ‘n bug world that most of us know nothing about, simply because we’re not privy to it or our lives tend to shift our focus to larger and more pressing matters?

But what on Earth could be more pressing at this time of year than what causes flowers to open, considering how drab our world would be without them?

— Rachel Lovejoy, a freelance writer living in Lyman who enjoys exploring the woods of southern Maine, can be reached via email at rachell1950@hotmail.com.