Antigonon leptopus

.. In an ecosystem under grazing pressure, plant species adapted to an environment with herbivores are more likely to proliferate than species not adapted to these conditions (Francis et al., 1994; Debrot and De Freitas, 1993). Plants with spines, acrid latex or unpalatable leaves become dominant (De Freitas et al., 2012). On St. Eustatius, this process is visible by the abundance of poisonous plants (e.g. Jatropha gossypiifolia) and spiny shrubs (e.g. Randia aculeata L.) in overgrazed areas (Van Andel et al., 2016). Antigonon leptopus, whose leaves are generally avoided by non-native herbivores (Ketner and Ernst, 2007), has a similar competitive advantage. (Heger and Van Ande, 2019)

Plant-insect interactions - The flowers’ nectar and pollen were predominately sought after by bees. When comparing the primary bee visitor taxa, Apis mellifera visited the flowers of A. leptopus more frequently than any other taxon, while Scaptotrigona sp. visited more frequently than two other taxa. Consequently, these two taxa plus Plebeia sp. spent around 30 seconds less on average per visit compared to members of the Halictidae. Therefore, certain bee taxa conduct many short visits at the flowers while others spend few but longer visits. (Belliveau et al., 2020)