Senna italica fruits and ants

The fruit of Senna italica here causing ant festivities are flat pods, broad and round-tipped, somewhat kidney-shaped. A narrow, coloured crescent is formed on the pod surface by the bulges of the seeds inside.

At the pod tip is a curved protrusion, unchanged from its appearance when the pod was still miniscule. The ripe pod will be papery and dehiscent.

Whether the ants do damage here in their apparent attempts at feeding is unclear. That the plant is not under threat in its huge worldwide distribution early in the twenty first century is safe to say.

These plants are used by people for several purposes in many cultures (Pooley, 1998; Van Wyk and Gericke, 2000; iSpot; JSTOR; Wikipedia).