Posted on 11/29/2022 1:11:12 PM PST by nickcarraway
IT'S a well-known fact that plants lack many of the sensory systems that animals and people use to perceive the world.
In fact, for most of history, it was assumed that plants had no sense of perception whatsoever. However, recent study seems to indicate that at least one plant might be capable of “seeing” what's around it.
Is this true?
Verdict:
POSSIBLY TRUE
In the early 2000s, plant scientist Ernesto Gianoli came across a curious climbing vine while walking with a student in the temperate forests of Chile.
The plant they came across is now called Boquila trifoliolata and what they found interesting was the fact that when the vine was on the forest floor, it had stumpy and roundish leaves.
However, once it climbed up into its host tree, its leaves changed its shape to become much narrower and longer, imitating its host.
This alone wouldn't be that interesting as there are many plants that practise mimicry, but what they found surprising was that when the plant changed hosts as it wrapped its way through the forest, it would change its leaves as well to match its new surroundings.
When Gianoli and his student finally published their paper on the curious vine in 2014 (research takes a long time), they hypothesised that the vines were somehow absorbing the DNA from its host plants in order to match its leaves.
However, a recent paper published earlier this year (2022) on Boquila has found evidence for something even more amazing - “plant vision”.
Researchers grew several Boquila plants using an artificial plant as their host to see if the Boquila would try to mimic its leaves.
And it turned out they did.
In each test they conducted, they saw the Boquila plants try their best to mimic the plastic leaves of its host.
Their leaves changed its shape to match those of its “host” and the researchers even saw that the veins on their leaves became less dense as they tried to match the patterns on the plastic leaves.
They concluded that it was probable that the Boquila specimens were using some sort of “plant vision” to see the leaves of their host plants in order to mimic them.
Being that the fake plants were plastic and man-made, the Boquila could not be absorbing any DNA from them in order to get any “design cues” from them for their leaves.
As to why Boquila would mimic other plants to begin with, both studies agreed that it was most likely a form of defence against herbivores.
If they looked like their host, the likelihood of them being singled out by a hungry caterpillar or some other leaf-browser was lower. Especially if the host plant was poisonous.
The Boquila was actually visually checking out its host plants for what to wear, research is still ongoing on the exact mechanisms involved.
References:
1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15592324.2021.1977530
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24768053/
3. Photo: Inao - Flickr: Boquila trifoliata - CC BY-SA 2.0
I have an Aloe Vera plant that grows with amazing speed to an amazing size, and puts out babies like crazy.
Every two years or so, ‘Audrey’ outgrows her current pot, gets composted and then one of her ‘babies’ goes into the old pot and the process begins again.
I’ve had her for close to 20 years, now. An amazing plant.
And, yes. She can see. She’s always watching me. :)
I’ve seen “mimic” weed plants grow right up my peppermint. Might be an evolutionary thing, they just didn’t get weeded out as often as obvious intruders.
Similar plants might get a free pollination ride, or protection from predators, etc.
“right up my peppermint” s/b “right up next to my peppermint”
And Black-Eyed Susans.
Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding SEEd, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose SEEd is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Coinseedence? I think not! 🍿🍿🍿
An Iris, maybe.. (?)
LOL
I read an article in Scientific American (50 years ago, before they forgot the definition of science), that plants turn toward the sun because the stems produce more chloroform on their sunny side, causing the stem to twist.
Just another one of those amazing things that evolve from chaos. ;)
I was in a family store, all alone, no business.
I hear rustling, like paper falling on other paper.
Turn around, the plant is shaking. No air conditioning running - it was inside a mall, away from mall entrances.
However, the glass of the store faced East, and the mall glass was across the walkway about another 10 feet out.
One day, for fun, I took a magic marker and made very small mark across the center stem and branches so I could mark the growth and the rotation.
At night I’d turn the plant away from the Sun - but it would turn towards the lights on at night in the store.
After the Sun was up the next day, they’d rotate towards the Sun.
It was pretty cool to observe that first time.
Remember fifty-fifty five years ago when it was claimed plants had feelings?
Well, I’ll have to remember that the next time I put the old Husqvarna 395XP blade up to an oak or maple ... it might swipe a branch down at me.
Potatoes have eyes. So there’s that.
I seed what you did there....................
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