The plant was prompted into flowering by the days getting shorter.

The nectary secretions attract ants and wasps to the floral stems to protect
them from other creatures eating the developing flower buds.


"Mel" wrote in message
...
First of all, usually I don't have a keen interest in gardening, but my
Mother-in-laws Tongue, without any prompting decided to flower.

I have had the plant for about 4 years, split it several times over the
last
12 months but seems to just keep outgrowing anything I put it in. Several
of
my friends have commented that they have had a mother-in-laws tongue and
seem fascinated by the flowering - I didn't even realise that they
flowered,
but some of the lower buds are now opening and the smell, quite pungent.

I just wondered though, there are lots of 'sticky' droplets of something
all
down the flower stem, I could imagine that these would attract bees - but
is
this the sole purpose of these droplets, I should imagine any small insect
touching any of these would face a very sticky end?

TIA

Mel