How can this vine *know* what to look like? Science looks at the first known case of shape-shifting mimicry in the vegetable kingdom:
Fewer examples of mimicry—or crypsis—are known for plants. But as in some mistletoe species in Australia, all of these imposters copy only one other species. That’s not the case with the woody vine Boquila trifoliolata, which transforms its leaves to copy a variety of host trees. Native to Chile and Argentina, B. trifoliolata is the first plant shown to imitate several hosts. It is a rare quality—known as a mimetic polymorphism—that was previously observed only in butterflies, according to this study, published today in Current Biology. When the vine climbs onto a tree’s branches, its versatile leaves… can change their size, shape, color, orientation, and even the vein patterns to match the surrounding foliage…. If the vine crosses over to a second tree, it changes, even if the new host leaves are 10 times bigger with a contrasting shape.
Pictures of the vine fitting in at the link.
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