The worlds most mysterious plant that mimics other plants
B. trifoliolata, native to southern South America, can mimic the leaf shape, size, and even color of more than a dozen plants. More incredible still is that two different parts of the same individual can mimic the leaves of two distinct plants, even if they look dramatically different.
Scientists have yet to figure out why, exactly, the vine mimics other plants, though it may give them some protection against herbivores like snails and beetles (assuming B. trifoliolata mimics less appetizing plants). The more exciting question, however, is how they do it. Plants have no brains or eyes. So how do they sense the shape of leaves around them and then copy it?
Searching for answers has intensified a fiery debate in the plant world. On one side are mainstream botanists, whose work is rooted in rigorous, repeatable studies, and on the other is a small group of researchers who believe plants share a number of attributes with animals, including humans. To the latter group, B. trifoliolata supports the idea that plants possess a form of vision and perhaps even a brain-like structure to process it.
B. trifoliolata uses lens-like cells in its leaves, or “ocelli,” to detect the shape and other attributes of nearby plants. Then, it somehow processes that information and uses it to form new leaves in their image. “I am very skeptical of this work, to say the least,” said Lincoln Taiz, a professor emeritus at the University of California Santa Cruz and co-editor of the textbook Plant Physiology and Development. “The idea that the ‘ocelli’ behave like little eyes that can construct an image of a leaf that would enable a plant to mimic that leaf is far-fetched.” (Yamashita said he’s used to criticism because his work challenges mainstream science. He added that his recent study was just one experiment and plant vision remains only a theory that needs more support.)
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/11/30/23473062/plant-mimicry-boquila-trifoliolata
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8903786/
B. trifoliolata, native to southern South America, can mimic the leaf shape, size, and even color of more than a dozen plants. More incredible still is that two different parts of the same individual can mimic the leaves of two distinct plants, even if they look dramatically different.
Scientists have yet to figure out why, exactly, the vine mimics other plants, though it may give them some protection against herbivores like snails and beetles (assuming B. trifoliolata mimics less appetizing plants). The more exciting question, however, is how they do it. Plants have no brains or eyes. So how do they sense the shape of leaves around them and then copy it?
Searching for answers has intensified a fiery debate in the plant world. On one side are mainstream botanists, whose work is rooted in rigorous, repeatable studies, and on the other is a small group of researchers who believe plants share a number of attributes with animals, including humans. To the latter group, B. trifoliolata supports the idea that plants possess a form of vision and perhaps even a brain-like structure to process it.
B. trifoliolata uses lens-like cells in its leaves, or “ocelli,” to detect the shape and other attributes of nearby plants. Then, it somehow processes that information and uses it to form new leaves in their image. “I am very skeptical of this work, to say the least,” said Lincoln Taiz, a professor emeritus at the University of California Santa Cruz and co-editor of the textbook Plant Physiology and Development. “The idea that the ‘ocelli’ behave like little eyes that can construct an image of a leaf that would enable a plant to mimic that leaf is far-fetched.” (Yamashita said he’s used to criticism because his work challenges mainstream science. He added that his recent study was just one experiment and plant vision remains only a theory that needs more support.)
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/11/30/23473062/plant-mimicry-boquila-trifoliolata
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8903786/
