In myrmecology and forest ecology, a devil's garden (Kichwa: Supay chakra, Spanish: Jardin del Curupira) is a large stand of trees in the Amazon Rainforest consisting almost exclusively of a single species, Duroia hirsuta. Devil's gardens are immediately recognizable because the dominance of a single tree species is dramatically different from the biodiversity of the forest as a whole.
According to Deborah Gordon devil's gardens got their name because locals believed that an evil forest spirit Chullachaki (meaning "uneven foot, single foot" in Kichwa) lived in them.
The ant Myrmelachista schumanni creates devil's gardens by systematically poisoning all plants in the vicinity except D. hirsuta, the tree in which it nests. The ant poisons the plants by injecting formic acid into the base of the leaf. By killing other plants, the ant promotes the growth and reproduction of D. hirsuta which has hollow stems that provide nest sites for the ants; A single ant colony might have more than 3 million workers and 15,000 queens, and may persist for more than 800 years. Although the ants fend off herbivores, the size of the garden is restricted by leaf destruction increasing as it expands, as the ants are unable to defend the trees beyond a certain point.
Frederickson points out that this symbiosis is an example of niche construction.
Famous quotes containing the words devil and/or garden:
“Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“The garden flew round with the angel,
The angel flew round with the clouds,
And the clouds flew round and the clouds few round
And the clouds flew round with the clouds.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)