What is relationship between the proteaceae plants and the native ants?

Answer 1

Mutualistic.

That answer can be correct but it really depends on what you are talking about. For example some kinds of ants some of the time have a mutualistic relationship with scale insects that feed on plants in the family Proteaceae and may kill them. Some other kinds of ants do nothing for the plant, but do eat its nectar, which is a parasitic relationship. Such ants do not have a mutualistic relationship with the plant.

Also, the relationship between the ants and the Proteaceae may be mutualistic in more ways than one. A common mutualistic relationship is one we call myrmecochory, in which the ants carry the seeds and thereby help the new plants to grow. What the ants get out of it is food. The plants grow nutritious tissues on the surface of the seeds, commonly at one end of the seed. We call such a lump of ant-feeding tissue an elaiosome.When the ants have eaten the elaiosome they either ignore the seed, or dispose of it on their garbage dumps. This usually is not where birds and other seed eating creatures will find the seeds, and it also might be a place that is very suitable for the seed to grow. For example the garbage might be good fertiliser, or it might poison fungi that might have rotted the seeds, or scare off other insects that might otherwise have eaten the seeds.

Answer 2

Proteaceae plants have a mutualistic relationship with native ants. The plants provide nectar and shelter in specialized structures called domatia for the ants, which in turn protect the plants from herbivores and help with seed dispersal by carrying seeds to their nests. This relationship benefits both the plant and the ants.