So my caapi plant has really taken a liking to its new habitat and started growing lots of new leaves!

I noticed today that on the biggest sets of leaves there are nodules at the base of the leaf.
These nodules are producing small balls of sticky liquid.

Out of curiosity I actually tasted this sticky substance and it was sweet!
Does anyone know what this is?

Are you sure there are no aphids on your plant? They secrete a sweet tasting waste product that looks like sap. I had them on a house plant once and everything around it got super sticky. A regular regimen of soap solution got them under control.

I have a few caapi plants and have never seen any sappy discharge but that certainly doesn't mean yours is not producing sap for some reason. As far as I know, sap is typically secreted by plants when they're in distress. Could anything be causing physical damage to the leaves?

-JM

I have to laugh at the possibility that you ate aphid crap.

Haha MMPA!

No they weren't aphids, I thought they were at first too actually but upon closer inspection they are definitely not bugs.
Actually you did have me a little worried that I ate aphid crap and just didn't look closely enough before tasting it!
So I whipped out the bud-scope and took a look and I actually found more nodes on the smaller leaves which have yet to emerge fully out of the stem.

The nodes are only on the sides of the stems right below the leaf base, but most of them are secreting small droplets of sap.
So far I can't find anything on the web about it.

I was hoping when I tasted it that I would be propelled into a full blown harmala trance.......no such luck

Oh and it could be stress its been planted for two weeks and has lost all but one original leaf.
It does have lots of regrowth though and seems happy.

Ok update:
The small yellowish bumps on the stem are called nectaries.
They produce sugar water that attracts ants.
I'm still not clear on wether the ants protect the plant from other bugs and drink the sugar water or if they use the sugar water to farm aphids.

At least I didn't eat bug poo

I've been observing this also on my caapi. Knew it wasn't aphids as they appear on the same position at the base of leaves. thanks for solving my problem and finding out they are nectaries.

I've seen lizards and all kinds of bugs drinking that nectar. It is very sweet and reminds me of honeysuckle nectar.

They are indeed called nectaries, extrafloral nectaries to be exact and in habitat they attract symbiotic ant species that then protect the plant from herbivores.

Over the years I have noticed my plants (cielo variety) still have the glands but no longer produce the nectar. I don't know why this is for sure, but I'm thinking the lack of those protective ant buddies has something to do with it. You'll find caapi has an intelligence all it's own if one takes the time to really get to know and observe it as it matures.

lol eating aphid crap. you guys shld bottle your caapi syrup and put it on pancaks